


Recollections of Your Heart

by whenyouwriteinbed



Series: Recollections [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal
Genre: F/M, Romance, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 56
Words: 70,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23855620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenyouwriteinbed/pseuds/whenyouwriteinbed
Summary: Spoilers for Persona 5 Royal, as it will be a retelling of the whole game, from start to finish.After getting an email from Futaba, Yoshizawa is given a copy of Joker's diary. She starts conflicted, wanting to protect his privacy, but decides to read through it anyway, hoping for a better chance at understanding the man she calls her boyfriend, and why he would even go out with someone like her.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 5 Protagonist/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi
Series: Recollections [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795705
Comments: 161
Kudos: 632





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I have no preference for Joker's name, but I'm lazy, so it's going to be Ren because it's shorter and easier to type with one hand.

Looking at the email on her screen, equal parts curiosity and respect tore at Sumire, as she checked the name of the sender one more time to make sure that it wasn’t a trick. The address of the sender was listed as unknown, but ‘Alibaba’s gift to you,’ in the subject line made it clear who had sent it to her.

The email was made of several text files, flooded with hearts at the beginning and end, with corny romantic lines put between the files ending with a winky face emoji, along with a few others that made Sumire blush as red as her hair at the innuendoes they sent.

She had gotten this email after she got a rare solo text from Futaba, rare in that it wasn’t all about teasing her, but instead bragging about something, which prompted the redhead to respond back and ask what the little hacker was so satisfied with:

_Fufufu_

_Sojiro thinks he’s sooooo smart_

Futaba?

_As much as he wants to claim it’s his house, I know way more about it than he thinks he does_

Didn’t you stay in your room until you got saved?

_That doesn’t matter_

_What really matters is that I found a special someone’s diary_

Did Sakura-san keep a diary?

_Oh, it’s not Sojiro’s_

_It belonged to a certain someone who stayed in the attic two years ago_

Ren-senpai’s?!

_You know it_

_I’ve read it three times since I digitized it_

How could you do such a thing?

_It’s more like a log than a diary if that’s what you’re worried about_

_You’re taking a while to respond, but I guess you want to say that’s not the point_

What about his privacy?

_It has some insight about his thoughts on you_

That was the last text she got before the email came, and ever since she just stared at the email, thinking about deleting it, but the temptation of learning how her boyfriend saw her kept clawing away at her, pooling some self-doubt and loathing back into her relatively clear mindset.

So, the email remained, and it sat in her inbox without the files being opened, with the dark thoughts slowly seeping their way back into her.


	2. Chapter 1

She thought she was stronger than that.

But maybe she wasn't.

She thought she had moved on from it.

But maybe she hadn’t.

The email from Futaba had been eating away at the back of her mind for a few days now, and it was killing Sumire, not knowing what was written in the dairy.

It didn’t help that last time that Ren had visited was a few days before Futaba had sent her the email, so memories of the precious little time they spent together were also running around in her head. She eventually caved, taking her chance when she got a call from her coach that they would have to reschedule.

She didn’t know why her usually strict coach would suddenly make a call like that, but Sumire jumped at the chance and decided to go home.

The apartment was quiet when she got home, her parents still out at work and would be for a few more hours.

She didn’t want to say that she had gotten used to a quiet apartment, but it had become reality when she would come home and find no one waiting for her. When she was a Phantom Thief, she could at least hope that Ren would come and see her or even thinking about coming home together with Kasumi when she was still alive.

Shaking her head at such thoughts, Sumire entered her room and sat at her desk, looking at the laptop, hands hesitant to flip the screen open as she thought about the action she was about to take.

Three minutes passed before she finally flipped it open, her cheeks red from smacking herself in the face to steel her resolve.

Opening the email, she selected all the files and clicked download, waiting for the bars at the bottom of her screen to fill.

As she waited, all sorts of thought started to enter her mind, thinking about what kind of deep thought Ren would put into his entries; maybe she could learn something from them and fix her outlook.

With a small beep, her laptop notified her that the files had been downloaded. Turning back to face the computer, Sumire took another brief pause and reached for her glasses. They were different from her original pair, as the rims were now a bit rounder like her boyfriend’s, something he went and got with her when her original pair broke on a date.

She paused again before putting them on her face, thinking about what Ren had said on his first visit back from the countryside.

_It’s alright if you want to keep your hair up, it’s an easy way to help remember your sister. But you can’t remember her if you completely let go of yourself. So even if it’s only around me, at least show me that you are still living as my precious Sumi._

She smiled at the memory, even blushing a bit at how smooth (she thought) he was, and even though Ren wasn’t there, Sumire felt that it would be best for her to put them on and go forward reading his thoughts as herself, slid the glasses on her face.

She clicked on the first file.

  * _April 10 th, 20XX_



_This will be my first entry into this diary._

_Since I will be expected to do this regularly, I am going to make it a habit of writing down whatever it is that may cross my mind when filling this in and record what has happened during the past few days._

_Today started with my caregiver, Sojiro Sakura, taking me to the school that has taken me in, Shujin Academy. I keep getting told that I should consider myself lucky that there’s a school willing to take in someone like me, but I wonder if this is little more than a play by the school to make a model out of me and boost their own image._

_I should just lay low and wait for the year to just come to an end._

  * _April 11 th, 20XX_



_I didn’t intend to write again so soon, but I might think myself crazy if I don’t write down what happened as proof that something really did happen._

_Coming out of the train station and making my way towards school, it started raining, and I didn’t have an umbrella. So I took a brief stop near the entrance of a building, and a girl was there who had the same idea as me._

_It wasn’t long after that a car drove past, and Kamoshida’s face peered through the window. From what I gather, he’s the volleyball coach at Shujin, and is the apparent star faculty member. But what happens next changes everything._

_After he drives away with the girl in his car, someone else runs up behind me and passes me, yelling profanities at the leaving car._

_His name is Sakamoto, and he showed me a path towards the school that made its way through back alleys._

_Or it was supposed to be until a European style castle was standing there in front of us._

_Before we enter, I check the front gate to make sure that we are indeed supposed to be at school and the plaque that says Shujin Academy is most certainly there._

_Trying to figure out what’s going on, Sakamoto and I went inside the castle and were immediately attacked by armored guards, knocking us out. When I come to, I’m in a cell with Sakamoto, and we nervously sit there and wait, wondering what’s going to happen._

_When guards finally showed up, both of us are surprised to see Kamoshida is there as well, but he looked completely different from when he was in the car._

_This Kamoshida only had four articles of clothing on him; a heavy cape patterned with hearts, some loafers, a crown, and beneath the cape, nothing but a pink speedo._

_His guards said that we were sentenced to death for trespassing in his castle, and Sakamoto was the first to go, since Kamoshida seemed to have an issue with him._

_I did attempt to stop it, when the other part that I can’t believe started to happen._

_My attempts to save Sakamoto changed it so that I was the new target, having two guards pin me against the wall, with the third guard preparing its sword. Before the sword came down, there was a voice in my head, saying that I really was going to die if I didn’t act, with Sakamoto coming next. With the simple question of if my choice to help the woman was wrong, all I could say was no. The voice seemed satisfied and said that it would lend me its power._

_And before me, the guards were suddenly knocked off their feet, slamming into the cell walls, and a mask was on my face._

_I don’t exactly know what overcame me to do so, but I tried to take the mask off, and it hurt. It was as if the mask had been welded to my face, and it took all my strength to pull it off._

_But when it came off, I felt this surge of power, a rush of energy as if I could do anything that I wanted, and this form made Kamoshida panic._

_The guards, who had been slammed against the wall, suddenly stood up and changed their form, becoming something completely new._

_That’s the best that I can remember before it gets blurry, but I remember running out of the cell with Kamoshida locked inside, yelling and screaming for murder._

_Sakamoto and I continued to move through what was clearly the dungeon of the castle, when our next big surprise showed up._

_Blocking our escape was a raised draw bridge, and there didn’t seem to be any obvious way to lower it. A voice called out to us, and when I looked around, there was a cat-like creature locked in one of the cells. Or it insisted that it wasn’t a cat, but it seemed rather like a cat to me._

_It said that it could help guide us out of the castle if we let it out of the cell, and since there wasn’t a better option, we let it out._

_We had to fight a few more battles, but we eventually managed to make our way out of the castle, as Sakamoto and I ended up on the street where you get off from the station._

_Taking a different path, we did eventually make our way towards school, and the building from Sunday was there._

_If this turns out to be nothing more than a lucid dream, and I really don’t know how I skipped the first 4 periods of class, I hope that this isn’t a sign of something wrong with me._

Stopping at that line, Sumire sat there, a little stunned, re-reading the last sentence over and over again in her head.

Ren, her beloved Ren-senpai, thinking that something was wrong with him?

She knew there were times when he had doubts about what he was doing, but to read him outright say that something could be wrong with him shook her to her core.

After a few moments and another set of smacked cheeks, Sumire cleared her mind and tried to think about from her boyfriend’s perspective.

‘I suppose if I didn’t have any guidance on what was going on, I would think I would be crazy too,’ she thought to herself, thinking about how panicked she was when she entered Maruki’s palace for the first time.

The memory quickly turned sour though, as she thought about how if she had been herself when it happened the first time, how bad things could’ve gotten. If she didn’t think she was Kasumi and followed along with Ren and his guidance to get out. How indecisive she would’ve been, slowing Ren down, putting him at risk.

He wouldn’t have saved her.

She had to move away from these thoughts.

Scrolling further down, Sumire finishing the rest of the entry.

_I’m writing this a few hours after my initial entry today._

_I think I’ve calmed down a bit from the strange castle, and now that I’m reading it myself, I wonder if I actually am crazy._

_But that’s not what I’m worried about._

_It seems like my criminal record got out somehow._

_I don’t know how it did, but only someone in a place of power would be capable of doing something like that._

_I have to be extra careful now, as there’s a huge target on my back._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a new style of writing for me, so if there's anything that could be changed, please let me know.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get into more entries, but this sort of just grew and grew, so it's going to be it's own chapter.  
> The next chapter will immediately start with more entries.

On the train to school, Sumire kept thinking about how Ren thought that something was wrong with him for not knowing what a Palace was, or that he was unaware that he had awakened his Persona.

The more she thought about it, the more worried she got. Sumire’s confidence was practically built on the fact that she believed Ren to be an unshakable object, unphased by negative things and an ability to push forward regardless, and he would always be there to catch her if something happened.

But the thought only led to when he did try to catch her and instead of thanking him, she pushed him off, insisting that anything he could do wasn’t good enough and it would never be good enough.

How would she ever fulfill her promise of being strong enough to stand on her own and catch him if she wasn’t even sure that she could properly fall in his arms?

“Aoyama-Itchome, Aoyama-Itchome. The exit will be on the right-hand side of the car,” the announcement came over the intercom, bringing Sumire back into the moment, making her way towards the door.

Her walk towards school was as quiet as ever, no one walking with her from the station was something that she admittedly missed from the last part of her year as a freshman. When she was Kasumi, it didn’t bother her at all, her mind focused solely on gymnastics and overcoming her ‘slump.’ When she had returned to herself, there was nothing more than a want to be alone, wanting to keep people away from a failure like herself. Towards the end of Maruki’s Palace to the rest of the year, she could always count on Ren walking with her from the station.

But once the year ended, Ren left, and all her friends left with him.

Ryuji left for his track dream, Makoto and Haru had left for college, Ann had left for America, and Futaba left to a different school. Yusuke was doing a rather un-Yusuke-like thing, working with Kawanabe and Sae to find ways to compensate Madarame’s former pupils, seemingly making it his mission during college to reach out to as many as he could find and using Sae’s legal backing to claim as much as he could from Madarame’s estate to sell and give.

All of them were truly going forward, and Sumire felt that she was the only one who was still stuck, the only one at Shujin.

As she got closer to the front gate, it looked like someone was waiting there, looking down at his feet, leaning against the wall as the teacher there seemed rather annoyed that he would do such an act in front of everyone coming to school.

She averted her eyes when she got closer, not wanting to get pulled in by the teacher as an example of an ideal student, when a rather familiar voice caught her ear.

“Like hell I have to respect your guy’s name. After all the shit you put the team through with Kamoshida and Yamaguchi, it’s more a wonder that I didn’t leave this place sooner.”

“Ryuji-senpai?” Sumire swung her head around, looking at the man who turned to face her upon hearing his name being called.

“Oh, Sumire!” the former Phantom Thief responded, stretching his arm out for a hi-five, one which was eagerly returned as Sumire made her way over. His bleached blond hair had was missing, as a fresh crop of dark black hair stood atop his head, with a stud piercing in his left ear.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her negative thoughts blocked by the surprise of a friend.

“Rehab’s been going fine, so the center wanted some of my track footage from freshman year,” he started, as the teacher watched dumbfounded, unable to believe that Shujin’s pride and joy was talking to someone like Ryuji.

“That’s good to hear, it was disappointing that you couldn’t come to the last get-together,” Sumire smiled, joining Ryuji in leaning against the wall as students made their way past them, whispers floating around them.

_Is that her boyfriend?_

_I thought he wore glasses?_

_Coming to greet her at school, how much attention does she think she needs?_

The last line made Sumire drop her smile, making Ryuji pause.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, standing straight as he turned to look at her.

“It’s nothing, you don’t have to worry about it,” she answered, averting her eyes.

There was another pause, before Ryuji shook his head, hand reaching for his phone.

“It doesn’t look like nothin’, something happen?” he continued, going through his contacts and looking for Ren.

Sumire was quiet again, before she got up from the wall and quietly said, “I’ll text you later today,” and walked away.

“Ah, o-okay,” Ryuji mumbled his response, watching her walk away, before texting Ren, as whispers continued to make their way around the two of them.

Crashing into her bed when she got home, Sumire stared at the headboard, as whispers from school weaved in and out of her mind.

It wasn’t so bad her freshman year, as she was never the center of attention for too long, but now that she was alone at school, she heard more things that she would’ve liked to hear.

As she lay there, trying to ignore the thoughts, a special ringtone went off from her phone, making Sumire whip her head to the side and look at it.

Was it really?

“Senpai?”

“Hey Sumi, your parents listening?” came her beloved Ren’s voice, coming off soft and smooth even through the phone.

“No, I just came back from school, sorry, …”

“Don’t be, it’s rough being in third year with exams to worry about. It must be extra hard with you and gymnastics,” he said, as Sumire moved towards a corner in her bed, resting her chin on her knees and her back against the wall.

“But still, this is a nice surprise Ren, what made you call,” she asked, a grin on her face upon hearing his voice.

It was suddenly quiet on the other end, and a deep sigh came through.

“Ryuji texted me saying that you seemed a bit off. Are you okay?” Ren asked, as the smile slowly left her face.

“Is, is Ryuji really the best person to listen to for this?”

“Normally no, but if even he could see it, then something is wrong.”

Sumire got quiet, unsure if she could counter her boyfriend, putting her phone down. She let it sit there for a few moments, before picking it back up, her eyes starting to water.

“I, I had a series of thoughts that lead back to me f-f-fig-,” she started, unable to say the word. “A, and I thought about how I said that I would be strong enough that I could take care of you when you would need it.

I, I’m not sure that I’m strong enough to even accept your help,” Sumire said, as the first tear started to make its way down her cheek.

“And it just makes me wonder if you should even s-s-stay with…”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

“Bu-but,”

“You still have my glasses there, don’t you?” Ren asked, as Sumire nodded even though he wouldn’t be able to see.

“You can put them on, become Joker for a moment.”

Sumire got up from her bed and opened a drawer from her desk and pulled out a glasses case.

When it opened, Ren’s glasses were looking back at her, her tears reflected in the lenses.

This was not the first time Ren had listened or been with Sumire when she had a breakdown. It was probably the second one this year. But after a particularly bad breakdown where she didn’t respond to anything, he just put his glasses on her as a spur of the moment and told her to think like Joker.

It had come as a surprise to both of them, as Sumire just looked through her teary eyes and Ren screamed internally, trying to keep a blush down from doing something so embarrassing.

But it seemed to work, and she started to calm down.

Putting the glasses on her face, Sumire sat back down, taking deep breaths and working to calm herself down.

“Was Joker strong enough to rescue everyone?”

“No, Haru’s father died, and Joker couldn’t stop it.”

“Did Joker quit being a Phantom Thief because of one failure?”

A sniffle.

“Did he quit?”

“No, it just hardened his resolve to make sure such things didn’t happen again.”

“So, a question for Violet, who could proudly stand next to Joker. Did she quit?”

“No,”

“Did she quit?”

“No.”

“Did she quit?”

“No!”

“There’s the answer I was waiting for! Violet, who stood proudly next to Joker didn’t quit, and the Sumi I know doesn’t quit!”

The phone fell as Sumire let out a cry, as Joker’s glasses slid up her face as she put her head further down her knees, letting all her feelings out.

She cried like that for a few minutes, as Ren stayed quiet and listened, waiting for her to let it out of her system.

When she finally stopped and picked up her phone, she was the first to talk.

“Sorry about that,” she said softly, her voice somewhat gone from crying.

“Don’t be, that’s what I’m here for,” he answered, being rewarded with an invisible smile. “But if there’s someone you do need to apologize to, it’s Ryuji. He’s been wa~iting for you to text him,” Ren teased, making Sumire laugh.

“Right, I did say that I was going to text him. Thanks for the call, Ren.”

“No problem. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Putting the glasses back in their case and into the drawer, she texted Ryuji.

I’m sorry that I worried you today

_Don’t be. The fact your texting means he got to you. Good on him for always knowing what to do_

She giggled at that, thinking how she thought the same thing, even if she was starting to see the human in him a bit more.

Still, I made you worry for me on a chance encounter we had

_Don’t worry about it_

_Ah, got to go, coach is calling me_

After reading the line, Sumire put her phone down, and looked at her laptop, wondering if she could read a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last of my online courses ended yesterday, so I have all the time I need for this, NG+ and Animal Crossing. No promise for a consistent schedule though.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said no guarantee for a consistent schedule, I didn't have this in mind.  
> Have a double upload.

Flipping the laptop open, Sumire went back to the first file and looked for where she left off when she noticed a red line running where she stopped.

She paused at the line, wondering what it could’ve been when she caught the trademark fanged grin of Alibaba at the end with a speech bubble coming out of it.

‘ _Hey! Thanks for giving me access to your computer! As thanks, I’ll mark where you left off. I’ll also be sure to send an image to Ren whenever you buy underwear!_ ’ popped up when Sumire moved her cursor over the bubble, prompting a blush and a quick text to the group chat, to which her only response was: ‘you get used to it.’

She fumbled around, wondering if Futaba would actually send Ren images of anything she bought online, when she got a solo text from Futaba: ‘ _Don’t worry too much about me showing it, he’s going to see you in it eventually_ ,’ which only made her blush even harder, burying her face in her hands.

When the blush eventually died down, she lifted her face from her hands, and reached for her glasses, putting them on as she continued to the next entry.

  * _April 12, 20XX_



_I don’t know if I should say I feel relieved or worried._

_First and foremost, it seems that I’m not crazy, and if I am, I’ve convinced myself to a point that I’m probably beyond saving._

_How do I start._

_The castle._

_The castle is real._

_Ryuji came up to me after school today and tried to figure out if there was a way to get back there._

_I was somewhat annoyed at first since I need to stay away from trouble and I was told that he was trouble, but seeing someone else say that it was there and that we somehow got there sent a feeling of relief through me._

_We came to a brief standstill until maps came up when Ryuji mentioned something about my phone. He asked if I was using a navigation app or something on my phone, and I said I wasn’t aware of such a thing. Unconvinced, he asked for my phone, so I gave it to him._

_He said that there was a weird eye-looking logo of an app on my phone, and he tapped it and found that there was a location listed as Kamoshida’s castle. Looking back, my phone had a weird app on it that wouldn’t disappear when I deleted it. I had thought it was malware, and that I would need to get my phone fixed, but if this is true, then the app is what let us enter the castle in the first place._

_So we entered an alley near the entrance of school and tapped navigate._

_And the castle was there. It was there._

_Making our way towards the entrance, screams were heard as we got closer. They turned out to be, if I’m getting this right, human-like puppets that are Kamoshida’s versions of people in his mind, or cognitive versions of real people._

_Thinking back, we had seen quite a few of those beings when we tried to escape. And the sight we saw when we got to where those cognitive students were was awful._

_They were kept even deeper in the dungeon from where we were, and they were all located in pits, putting them even lower. Some had armored guards beating them with spears, some were running on a treadmill that had spikes on one end and a kettle on the other, and some were just lined up before cannons, getting shot repeatedly in the face with volleyballs, all examples of abuse that volleyball team members were supposedly facing._

_And I was running around in this, dark, flowing outfit that seemed like it would be too hard to navigate in, but it just seemed to flow with me, moving with me and never getting caught on anything as I ran through the castle. It supposedly resembles how I think a rebel looks like, which influences my powers._

_And my powers, I forgot about my powers._

_Apparently, my powers come from my rebel spirit materializing, and the materialization of that power is a Persona, a representation of how I rebel. It looks like a person with wings coming from his hips and is named Arsene. That doesn’t cover all of it, but I’m still taking this all in._

_The cat creature from yesterday is the one who said all of this, and he may have said it before, but I’m just now able to take all of this in. He says his name is Morgana, and he lost his form as a human and is trying to find a way to reclaim his human form._

_And toy guns, toy guns work like the real deal. Toys!_

_Ryuji brought it in and gave it to me, and as we were making our way down where the cognitive students were being held, I tried to shoot, and it actually took down an enemy. And it reloads between fights too._

_And our enemies, now that I’m thinking about them, are apparently called Shadows. And the Kamoshida we saw yesterday was a Shadow of himself._

_I think the cat said that it was the side of him that he doesn’t want to show, a repressed and negative aspect of himself that he doesn’t face, and it’s turned him into what he is now._

_That was just making our way down, what happened as we tried to get out though was surprising._

_When we tried to leave, Kamoshida was waiting for us by the entrance and ambushed us. He had way more guards this time, and despite the best efforts of me and Morgana, it wasn’t enough._

_That was when it happened._

_Then Kamoshida started talking about Ryuji’s past, and it pissed him off._

_Ryuji awoke his Persona and managed to clear away a lot of Shadows._

_It was a pirate on a ship._

_Like a pirate standing on a small pirate ship. What are the rules with Personas?_

_Regardless, after clearing away some of the Shadows, something rather despicable came in._

_A cognitive student walked in with cat ears and dressed in a bikini. I recognized her from class and as the one who got in Kamoshida’s car yesterday._

_Now that I think about it more, she didn’t look happy getting in the car either._

_Whatever it was, it seemed kind of unnatural to me, but the cat seemed a bit too into her._

_Maybe the cat ears did it._

She had to stop, the laugh that she got out of that line made her look away from the screen as Ren so blatantly insulted Morgana’s desire for Ann.

Where was she?

_After getting out of the castle, Morgana mentioned something about wanting me for a part of his grand plan, but I never heard him mention anything about such a plan. So we left._

_Ryuji said he memorized the faces of the volleyball players, so he’s going to take the chance to go around and ask volleyball members anything about the abuse. I don’t think it’s likely that he’ll find anything, but I should keep an eye on him. The whole reason he wanted to come back to the castle was to see if he could help those people out, even though they’re not real._

_He’s not too bad I suppose._

Then the next entry started.

Wait.

Where was she?

Sumire went through the entry again, and no matter what she looked for, anything that vaguely mentioned her didn’t show up; no mention of red hair, lowerclassmen, nothing.

She sat on the fact that she didn’t show at all, before shaking her head and smacking her cheeks.

‘He didn’t know who I was, he could’ve had any number of interactions like this and never written them down,

It’s okay, he cares about you, he just didn’t know you yet.’

She moved onto the next entry.

  * _April 14 th, 20XX_



_I forgot to enter yesterday, so I’ll enter what I learned then now._

_Members of the volleyball team are afraid._

_They think they can’t do anything because the school is more willing to cover for Kamoshida than take care of them. One of their members said it straight up when we confronted him about it._

_After the failure of getting something out of volleyball members, Morgana showed up in the school courtyard. He apparently can move between the castle and our world without too much trouble, but he totally looked like a cat._

_I think he’s as delusional as I thought I was when I first saw the castle._

_Morgana said that there was a way for us to make Kamoshida say everything himself._

_The castle that we had entered is supposedly called a Palace, and it exists because someone has an extremely distorted desire in something. That something is then materialized in an object called a Treasure, and if the Treasure is taken out of the Palace, the desire would go away, forcing the person to confront what they had done and tell the world._

_The only apparent downside is, if we mess up somewhere in the process, there’s a high likelihood that the person becomes brain dead._

_Fighting for justice is one thing, but I don’t need murder on my list of reasons why I’m being watched._

_As for today, I met someone who reinforces the idea that Kamoshida is a slimy bastard._

_I saw the girl in the car and my classmate, Ann Takamaki, crying outside the transition between rail lines at Shibuya, and she was clearly distressed about something._

_She initially ran away, but she eventually caved and agreed to talk to me about what she was crying about._

_Ann spoke about her only friend, and how she feels that if she doesn’t placate Kamoshida, he’s going to remove her friend from the starting roster._

_She eventually left, saying that she was glad that she could speak about it, and asked me if I was just someone people opened up to._

_My situation doesn’t have people coming to me._


	5. Chapter 4

Looking down at her lap, Sumire continued to wonder if this was really okay.

It was becoming more and more apparent as she was reading that the Ren she knew wasn’t around yet, and she wondered if she was okay with that.

Her Ren was confident, would reach out to help people, and would advance regardless of the risk.

What she was reading now?

It was a Ren who was careful, didn’t do anything to actively put himself in danger, even if he wanted to.

How long was she going to have to wait until she saw the Ren she knew and loved.

  * _April 15 th, 20XX_



_I’ve had time to calm down but thinking about it is making me angry. I’m taking the risk._

_I don’t care if he ends up braindead, someone just tried to kill herself because of what he did._

_It happened during morning class when one of the students closest to the doors spotted her._

_Ann’s best friend, Shiho. She was standing on the edge of the rooftop. And dropped._

_And the worst part about it._

_None of the teachers tried to take responsibility._

_Ann ended up escorting her to the hospital._

_The guy who said that nothing would change, he ran away from the scene._

_Ryuji looked like he was about to hit him, and I wanted to know as well, so we trapped him against a corner._

_He denied it for a while, but he caved when Ryuji slammed his fist against a locker. He said that Kamoshida had called her for what he called ‘extra coaching.’_

_Looking back at yesterday, Ann was crying with her phone in her hands. He tried to get her to come._

_She told me her worries. He took it out on her best friend. I may have caused this as well._

_Ryuji snapped and ran towards the PE office. I followed, so did the guy._

_When I got there, Kamoshida was denying anything he did wrong._

_Ryuji almost decked him, but I caught his hand before he hit. We couldn’t let it end before we even started._

_Kamoshida laughed at my attempt and promptly said he was going to get everyone in the office expelled for threatening him._

_Even the guy following us. He was the one who leaked my info under threat from Kamoshida._

_If I’m going to stay in school, I have to take his Treasure._

_The first part of today was written in the Palace. There are places where that bastard’s influence is supposedly weaker in areas called Safe Rooms, so we can take breaks if we find them._

_A lot more has happened, and something towards the end just made me confused._

_When we reached the Safe Room, we heard a struggle closer to the entrance, and Morgana went to investigate. I wrote the last entry in the time between him going and his return._

_When he came back, he was all in a panic saying the Ann was being taken away by guards._

_She had been watching us enter the first time, and followed us in._

_Ryuji and I forced her out, but she got back in._

_Looking back, Ryuji only managed to enter the Palace with me because of his proximity when the app activated, and he got it on his phone then. It wouldn’t be strange if Ann had gotten the app and came back in._

_When we got to where Ann was being held, it only made us angrier._

_She was tied to a cross, surrounded by topless girls, all of whom had nothing but lust in their eyes looking at one bastard._

_He just stood there, mocking her, and when he realized that we had entered, did nothing but have a guard point a sword at her throat._

_Then he said the fact that Shiho jumped was probably the best decision she ever made._

_And like Ryuji and me before her, Ann awakened her Persona._

_I wonder if pissing off people in a life-or-death situation helps._

_Her Persona was a woman with a cigar in her mouth, cleavage on full display as it stood over a man who had a leash on him, with another casually being hung over her shoulder._

_As with the other awakenings, the guards were blown away with the awakening, and grabbing the sword that was put to her neck, Ann cut down the cognitive version of herself._

_The bastard panicked and had another of his guards deal with us, running away and grabbing a random girl._

_The guard transformed into a demon sitting on a toilet and seemed like it would take a while to deal with._

_Then Ann attacked with a move that floored it, making it easier for us to beat down on it._

_I forgot to mention this, but it seems that Shadows and Personas alike have elemental strengths and weaknesses like P0kémon._

_Morgana has wind-based attacks, Ryuji electric, Ann fire, and I, apparently can take any Shadow and make them my own._

_In other words, I have to use this ability to use anything to cover the weakness of my teammates and ensure that we can get out of every situation alive._

_I had taken in two such Shadows before we entered the Safe Room, and then the next surprise came._

_As we made our way out and towards the entrance of the Palace, an entrance to the Velvet Room opened._

_One of the twins was there, waiting for me._

_And then I realized that my dreams have entered my physical life._

_I’m stopping now, writing that sentence made my head hurt. I’ll follow up tomorrow morning._

A small sigh of relief came, as Sumire leaned further back into her chair.

He wasn’t quite there yet, but the Ren she knew was starting to take shape.

That was good.

Though she didn’t know what ‘twins’ he was talking about, wasn’t the attendant she saw when peaking into the nurse’s office the only one?

  * _April 16 th 20XX_



_Being lost in thought about the Velvet Room, I forgot to mention that Morgana followed me back to Leblanc._

_Sojiro tried to say something, but gave up on it, saying that a pet would force me to be more responsible._

_Not quite sure what we’re doing is the most responsible thing to do._

_The Velvet Room, now that I’m writing this down, is a world between reality and consciousness or something that I normally can only enter from my dreams. It supposedly looks like a reflection of my heart, which is just a blue prison block with all the cells placed in a circular manner._

_I’m not that depressed._

_It has master, who’s a long-nosed, spindly old man named Igor, and twin wardens, Caroline and Justine, and they are supposedly supervising my ‘rehabilitation.’_

_Justine has a list of Personas and records any that I bring to her, as well as updating any changes that the Personas I use go through._

_They also offer a ‘ritual,’ if I say, of fusing two Personas together into one._

_I had three Personas on me, and for some reason, the suggested that I used Arsene in the fusion, along with a different Persona that I was using._

_Not knowing much, I went along with the twins’ suggestion and fused Arsene._

_But the real surprise came after that._

_When I received the Persona, Justine thought something was wrong, and checked my roster of Personas._

_To her surprise, Arsene was back within me, seemingly more powerful than when I sent him to be fused._

_The twins sat there for a few moments, before shaking their heads as Igor said he was done teaching me for now, and that there would be more rituals for later, before phasing away. He was still there, but he wasn’t present._

_Caroline and Justine seemed to be a bit confused when it was just me talking to them without Igor listening, as they said that they had gifts for me._

_They said that there would be a box of weapons and items waiting for me when I got back to Leblanc, and there were some Personas that were waiting to be used as well._

_But once they finished saying the words, they seemed unsure of what they had said, as if someone had told them something and they couldn’t remember who did._

_Regardless, they sent me away, along with my powered up Arsene._

_I’ll check the box later; I’m going to a clinic in the neighborhood for supplies after school before we go back to the Palace._

_I just checked the box of supplies, which was just my storage box that contained all my stuff that I brought from home, and there was a_ dorapoké _* in there._

_I’m not sure why, but when I put my hand through, it just ate it up, and when I looked in, my hand looked like it did when I was in the Palace._

_Morgana didn’t seem to notice, he just asked me what I was doing with the box when I got close, but when I opened the pocket, he seemed to not know what I was doing._

_When I got called to the Velvet Room leaving the castle, the others seemed to have not noticed as well and asked me what I was spacing out for._

_Could it be that access to the Velvet Room and this pocket make it look like I’m not paying attention?_

_Depending on what’s going on, that could be terrible._

_Regardless, I decided to experiment with the pocket and took some of the items we got from the clinic and put them in. They just sank right in, and when I thought about them and tried to pull them out, they were in my hand._

_Seeing I could just pull them right out, I tried to put all the items in and then tried to pull them out._

_They fell to the floor once my hand left, but I can seemingly still pull them out._

_This was going to be more useful than I thought._

_Justine said that there were weapons and gear waiting inside for me, so I’ll mess with it before I go with Ryuji tomorrow._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dorapoké is actually a slang term in Japan for someone who seemingly has everything you would need for the situation at hand.  
> It comes from the character Doraemon and his 4th dimension pocket, abbreviated in a similar way that Pokémon is an abbreviation of Pocket Monster.  
> This is just my way of getting around the seemingly bottomless pockets of Joker, and I just use pocket throughout the rest anyway, so uh, not much point in this.  
> Also, items in waiting, is this a hint of something else?


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I try to make these longer than about 1700 words, but then my brain stops working.  
> Me and my academic writing brain just quit, something like this is too different from how I normally write, so it just starts to feel weird.

Sumire was going through her practice routine with much more energy than usual.

There were still two weeks left till summer break started and she would naturally be going on a training camp, but after much pleading and begging, she had gotten approval from coach Hiraguchi to allow Ren to come and join her during that time. There were conditions of course, but it made her extremely happy.

She was unable to meet with him during summer break last year, so the chance of seeing him at the start and end of every day for a long period like that had made her more excited than anything else before.

It was perhaps the first time since Kasumi died and not believing in herself that Sumire had actively watched the clock, wanting practice to be over and tell her boyfriend.

“Eyes off the clock Yoshizawa! The more you look, the more I’m adding!” Hiraguchi’s voice rang, bring Sumire back into the moment. She went over the next part of her routine in her head and took off onto the mat with perhaps a bit too much speed.

I did it!

You can come with me this summer!

Sumire smiled as she looked at the text, ignoring the rug burn she got on her leg after she tripped on her ribbon and skid on the mat, too excited to feel the pain.

It had been a few weeks since she read the last entry because she had been working on trying to get Ren on board, talking between him and coach to see what he could do for the time that they would be practicing. It was eventually agreed that he would be spending most of his time either cooking or cleaning up after the gymnasts, and he would be sleeping in an area separate from them and the coaches.

It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but she wasn’t going to let this chance get away; her first summer together with Ren.

When she reached the floor that their apartment was on, Sumire spotted her father, closing the door behind him.

“Father!” she called out, rushing forward to catch the door, making him pause, turning around to greet her.

“Ah, Sumire! You seem full of energy? Something good happen?” he asked, opening the door for her.

“Mhm, Ren can join me during summer training,” she answered, stepping in and taking her shoes off, making her way towards the kitchen.

“Ah, you said that you’ve been trying to make it happen for a while,” her father responded, following behind her as Sumire pulled out some barley tea from the fridge.

“I cannot tell him ‘thank you’ enough for everything that he’s done for you,” he continued, getting some glasses out for them.

Sumire nodded, and poured the tea into both, putting the pitcher back into the fridge.

She was going to say something when her phone went off, and she looked at her screen.

“Ah, go ahead,” her father said, seeing how her eyes lit up after reading the screen, letting Sumire make her way into her room.

He sat there, watching her go and be happy, the thought kept crossing his mind that he really, really needed to thank her boyfriend.

Perhaps he should get him a drink on his next visit.

* * *

Plopping herself onto her bed, Sumire read the text that she got.

_Great!_

_You worked hard for this_

She smiled.

It only worked because you’re working to be my personal trainer

_If that was it, I wouldn’t have to worry about pleasing your coach_

_I couldn’t walk properly for weeks after that_

_She really cares about you to put me through that kind of hell_

Sumire giggled, remembering the first time that Ren had spoken with Hiraguchi about wanting to be her personal trainer. She wasn’t sure what it was that ran through her coach’s eyes, but whatever it was, it meant that Ren was going to struggle.

_Also, are you planning on something?_

What?

_Futaba sent me some images of you in lingerie that I know you’re not bold enough to wear, did you buy something?_

Red.

Embarrassment.

Panic.

Try as hard as she could, her cheeks started to flush, as Sumire could only imagine the things that Futaba would send to Ren.

_I take that as no_

_She needs to stop browsing those sites, she sent some to Makoto as a prank last year_

_I’ll see you there_

Still red from thinking about what scanty image Futaba would’ve sent to Ren, Sumire spent the next ten minutes trying to calm down, her face buried in her pillow.

When she did, she reached for her phone, seeing that Futaba had texted her.

_It was a beautiful set, you could totally rock it_

She would get red for the rest of the week if she thought about it again.

With a week left till the camp, Sumire was sitting down at her desk, having been afraid of what she would see if she opened her laptop after the text from Futaba, but she wanted to know more.

She put her glasses on. Taking a deep breath, she opened the screen and clicked on the file.

  * _April 17 th 20XX_



_I went shopping with Ryuji today._

_We went into a back-alley store in Shibuya to see what sort of model guns we could get, but there was something else I was more interested in._

_I spent the morning pulling out weapons from the pocket. When they were in the pocket, they felt like they were real, with all sorts of different materials being felt against my hand. But when I pulled them out, they were nothing but plastic and rubber models. Highly detailed models, but still models._

_Seeing that these weapons were well above anything that we had when we first entered the Palace, I wanted to see what a person who specialized in this sort of stuff would think._

_Ryuji gave me some money to buy at the shop and left, saying that he trusted my judgment._

_He only counts money in terms of ramen and beef bowls, so I either owe nine bowls of ramen or five beef bowls to Ryuji later._

_When he left, I asked the clerk if he could look at some of the stuff I had._

_He seemed confused and asked what I would want in this situation when I pulled out a knife that I thought of when I thought of weapons for myself._

_He just looked at the knife and back at me, before asking where I got such a detailed thing._

_I told him it was in a storage unit of a family member who just died, and I was given all the replica weapons he had in there since I was supposed to be in that age group._

_The clerk just looked at me, then laughed, saying that he had no interest in buying weapons from some punk kid like me, and that if there were any guns, that maybe we could talk._

_I showed him one of the pistols that came to my hand when I thought of myself._

_He paused, before asking me to hand him the pistol._

_Not seeing anything wrong with that, I handed it to him._

_The clerk looked at the pistol long and hard, before giving back to me, asking me where I had gotten it._

_I gave him the same response._

_He just stared at me, before shaking his head, seemingly wanting to say something but didn’t._

_He said that if I ever wanted to come by again with some other weapons that I was free to enter._

_I’ll see if I can get any information from the twins._

Seeing that it was the end, Sumire started to scroll down but was greeted by a large Alibaba grin, with a speech bubble over it again.

Not wanting to click on it with the recent thoughts of what Futaba did, she scrolled further down, where the next entry was the day that Kamoshida confessed everything at the school assembly and the file ended.

Where was the rest of it?

Sumire looked at the speech bubble for maybe three minutes before slowly moving her cursor over it.

_When I got this, there were several pages missing, looking like they were torn out._

_Everything in those pages were related to Kamoshida’s Palace from what I can guess, but it made me wonder what made Ren do this._

_As I kept reading, I eventually found it in a later entry:_

  * _January 10 th, 20XX+1_



_I tore out some pages of my diary._

_Just seeing it made me mad, and the only outlet I had at the moment were those pages._

_They were all related to the bastard Kamoshida, and what he said about Sumire in one of the worst rooms in his Palace._

_Where the queen book went into the wall, there was something to the effect of, ‘her sister is dead, it should be easy to make her want me’ with Sumire’s name at the end. It happened to be the page that opened when I planned on writing what happened today, and after seeing what happened in Maruki’s Palace, I lost it._

_Morgana had to scratch at my ankles for a few seconds before I felt him, stopping what I was doing to look at him._

_He lectured me about losing my cool with an extremely worried face._

_That wasn’t good._

_I can’t let this affect how we go into the Palace tomorrow._


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This sat on my computer for a bit because my GameCube controller for Smash broke and the replacement came so I spent my time breaking in the new controller.  
> I can't RAR as well on this one as my old one yet and I don't like it.

Her room was briefly quiet, as Sumire just stared at the screen, some sort of feeling crawling up her throat.

She remembered when she had asked Ann about Kamoshida’s Palace, how there was a room where pictures of Shiho were hung up all around the room, with a similar cross that Ann had been tied to when her Persona awoke, how his voice echoed around saying that she loved him.

How she came out dressed as a bunny girl when they fought his Shadow before Ann eventually shot her whip out at the cognitive version of her, tears and rage in her eyes. How it hurt her to hit a version of her best friend, even if it wasn’t the real her.

How much her tongue hurt from biting it so she wouldn’t kill Kamoshida’s Shadow.

And the fact she was a target and just didn’t think about it, it made her stomach churn.

How lucky she had gotten to avoid him and have him not do anything.

She scrolled further down.

  * _May 2 nd, 20XX_



_It happened._

_It worked._

_He confessed._

_Honestly, I’m still taking in the fact that it worked. He confessed everything._

_It took me three hours thinking about what happened before I started this._

_There was a school assembly today where the principal had tried to set it up as a warning about not committing suicide._

_Seeing how he let it slide, I think he just tried to cover his tracks._

_Many of the students were already annoyed, when Kamoshida walked in._

_He made his way to the stage, where the principal just stared at him, wondering what he was doing._

_Then he said it._

_He had done actions unbecoming of a teacher and a coach, that he was physically and sexually abusive, that she had driven Shiho to suicide, forced Ann to date him for Shiho’s starting position, everything._

_Then he said he was going to kill himself._

_Everyone gasped at that, wondering what they should do._

_Then Ann spoke up._

_She said live._

_Shiho’s alive, and he shouldn’t get to run away from what he’s done._

_And he agreed._

_He requested that someone call the police so he could turn himself in._

_The principle panicked and said the assembly was over, and that everyone should go back to class._

_Ann, Ryuji and I were the only ones left in the gym when everyone had left, where Ann asked if this was okay._

_She seemed fine, but I think she’s still unsure more than anything._

_Then some students came and apologized to Ann about the rumors._

_She just said yeah, and we went to class, as a teacher saw us and said go to class._

_When school ended, we went up to the roof and thought of what to do from there._

_The idea of a celebration came up, and Ann said she had an idea. Instead of holding onto the Treasure, we decided to sell it to pay for our celebration._

  * _May 4 th, 20XX_



_Sojiro kept me busy yesterday, so I couldn’t go and sell the medal._

_And the moment I walk into the gun shop, the clerk turned his head and looked at me. He was on a phone call and looked me straight in the eyes. He tells the person on the other end that the police were outside and hung up._

_He then asked me about my inheritance._

_I look back and tell him that I didn’t bring any with me, and I have something I want to sell._

_He continues to stare me down, but eventually backs off, asking me what I have._

_I showed him Kamoshida’s medal, and he asks me where I got it._

_I said that I found it in the PE office, where his throne room was in the Palace._

_He looks at me again, and shrugs his shoulders, saying he’ll buy it for 30000._

_I nod in confirmation, and he hands me something else._

_It was a paper bag with a realistic replica pistol inside. He got me to smuggle it out of his store, as police did come in the shop._

_I’ll bring the gun back, and I’ll show you some of the other weapons, you crafty bastard._

_I hope the place Ann recommended is worth the smuggling._

  * _May 5 th, 20XX_



_What was supposed to be a celebration had turned sour by the atmosphere._

_The food was indeed good, but we just stood out from the crowd, whispers about how we were trying to enjoy something that wasn’t meant for us._

_It didn’t help that when Ryuji and I were coming back from the bathroom, someone had shoved us away from the elevator, though I have the faintest feeling that I remember a voice in the group of people, but I don’t know where._

_So when we reunited with Ann, she looked just as down trotted as we felt._

_She asked if we belonged in such an atmosphere and I said that we didn’t belong anywhere._

_They looked at me for a second when I said that, but they nodded, thinking about how school life had been for the three of us._

_Ryuji asked if there was nothing more we could do._

_He asked Morgana about Palaces, and that anyone could have one, and when the cat said yes, he just looked at us like we could be doing more._

_We were quiet for a few seconds before we nodded, and the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were born anew._

_Get ready world; the Phantom Thieves have come to town._

_Let’s go and fix the world._

_Best of luck to future us._

Sumire was all smiles on the train ride as she looked out the window, lenses reflected in the window.

The file had ended with Ren’s cheer for the Phantom Thieves, and she felt confident that the Ren she knew was born at that moment. She didn’t open the next file, spending the rest of the week preparing for camp.

She was sitting with a group of other gymnasts, as their coaches sat further ahead in the car, all of them talking about the upcoming camp.

Sumire herself wasn’t listening, more absorbed in daydreaming about the little time she would have with Ren during her breaks and seeing him for every meal.

“-zawa, Yoshizawa.”

“Hm?” Sumire looked away from the window, hearing her name being called.

“Were you even listening to our conversation?” one of the other girls asked, as some of them looked at her.

“Um, no, what conversation,” she asked, unsure of what she should’ve been listening to.

“Someone’s boyfriend is supposedly working at our camp, and you’re the only one who hasn’t said anything about it,” the same girl said, as a feeling of imminent embarrassment grew in Sumire’s stomach.

“Everyone’s said if they have a boyfriend or not, you’re the only one who hasn’t said anything,” a different girl said, drawing all eyes on Sumire. She blushed and diverted her eyes.

“Ah! She looked away!”

“She does!”

“How long have you been together?”

An avalanche of questions hit her, as Sumire started to shrink in her seat, afraid of what embarrassing things she would say under pressure.

Walking through the station, Sumire was red in the face as she stuck close to Hiraguchi, afraid of talking anymore with the other girls.

She sat for what felt like an eternity, unable to answer any of the questions that went her way as she stuttered every other word.

Hiraguchi only laughed when Sumire approached her about it in the station as they got off the train, saying that it’s what she got for not paying attention to what was going on around her.

As the group stepped out of the station, they gathered by an information board, getting a text that their drivers were going to be a bit late, an issue with one of the cars as they were leaving.

Still unable to shake off the embarrassment of talking with the other girls, Sumire stayed near the coaches. As they started talking amongst themselves, Sumire checked her phone, feeling her phone vibrate while she was on the train.

_So, read the first file, did you?_

_Since you didn’t open the rest, I took the liberty to download the next two files on your phone_

_No need to thank me_

Uh oh.

_If Ren tries to take a peek, it’ll appear as glamor shots that I edited his face on, and he’ll never be the wiser_

She was so absorbed in reading the text, Sumire didn’t feel someone’s presence sneaking up on her.

“Konichi-…. wa!”


	8. Chapter 7

As he sat in the driver’s seat of the gymnast car, Ren kept glancing over to his left, as Sumire was pouting out the window.

When the ‘wa’ came, Sumire yelped and turned around, tripping on her own feet at the surprise.

When the coaches heard the yelp, they naturally turned to face her. They were greeted with Sumire in Ren’s arms, a classic Joker grin looking down at Sumire’s blushing face.

“I missed you,” was all Ren could say before the other girls saw them.

Checking over again, Sumire was still looking out the window, her pout only making Ren want to tease her more.

“Glad to see you still wearing glasses,” he started, whispers coming from the back.

“I didn’t bring enough contacts,” Sumire responded, keeping her eyes on the window.

“You know I like you with glasses on,” Ren countered, with the whispers getting a bit louder.

Sumire paused for a bit, her blush visible in the reflection of the window, turning further back to see the girls looking at her, almost expectantly.

She turned back around, fidgeted a bit, her blush a bit redder.

She tugged on Ren’s sleeve.

“Can we talk more in private later,” she whispered, leaning into him.

More whispers from the back, as Ren paused for a bit, before pushing her back into position.

“Sit straight when you’re in the car,” he said, rustling her hair a bit and patting her on the head.

When they reached their camp, Ren parked the car next to the other one, opening the doors as the girls were chatting up a storm, with Sumire noticeably behind them.

Their camp was a good distance away from the town they arrived in, made up of the gym that would be their primary practice area and small cabins around them, with a dining hall and bathhouse on opposite ends of the camp.

It was normally used by basketball and volleyball teams, but they had managed to get in, with the facility owner wanting to experiment with gymnastics.

Getting the bags out of the back and handing them out, Ren felt his hands getting touched, more that he anticipated, with some winks coming his way as Sumire stayed back, leaning against the side of the car.

Once the other girls got their bags, Ren turned to Sumire, holding her bag in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, passing her bag as she took it, face down.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he continued, closing the distance.

Sumire stayed quiet, still not looking him in the eyes.

She stayed like that for a few seconds, before leaning into him.

“That was unfair,” she whispered, her cheek pressed against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her, a smile on his face.

“I just returned the favor from Hawaii,” he muttered, kissing the top of her head.

Sumire smiled at the kiss, giving Ren a quick hug before stepping back, looking at him.

“You have to make up for embarrassing me in front of everyone,” she said, putting her bag over her shoulder.

“Tonight’s diner is curry, so I think I’m covered,” Ren answered, locking the car and making his way to the dining hall.

“I decide,” she said with an easy grin and made her way towards the rest of the group, where Ren’s supervisor was talking with all the coaches.

Day one of camp was rough.

It didn’t matter that they had spent most of the day traveling, the girls were only given ten minutes to unpack a bit and get dressed for some basic training to warm up for the rest of the three weeks.

So when diner time came, Sumire’s stomach rumbled in anticipation, the taste of Ren’s curry running through her memory.

Everyone walked into the dining hall dressed in their training clothes, as the smell of spices wafted out of the kitchen.

The sound of rumbling stomachs was heard throughout, but none was more pronounced than Sumire’s, blushing at the attention she got.

“It’s really good,” was she could say for herself as they lined up.

The kitchen was only separated from the rest of the dining hall by a wall and a door, with a part of the wall missing to serve as a serving counter. Plates of curry were already lined up, seemingly fresh out of the pot.

Many mouths watered upon finally seeing the curry, but they all had to restrain themselves, waiting for everyone to get their portion and for Ren to formally introduce himself.

With everyone seated, Ren walked out of the kitchen, wearing a spotless apron, and stopped in front of the counter.

“Hello, everyone,” he started, all eyes on him.

“I’m Amamiya Ren, and I will be your cook for this camp. I’m currently working to be a physical trainer, but with the way things are going, I may just turn into a chef,” he joked, though few laughs came with everyone focused on the food.

“Well, I can see that you’re all eager to dig in, so I won’t make you wait any longer. I’ll be in your care.”

And the spell was lifted.

After _itadakimasu_ , it didn’t take long for many plates to be clean, with many of the girls wondering if seconds were an option.

“Please wait for everyone to be finished. And I will say, tomorrow will have no seconds, so if you want some, today is one of the only days with seconds,” Ren said, speeding up some of the others who were yet to clear their plates.

Walking out of the dining hall, Sumire could hear how Ren was the talk of the town, all the girls much more interested in him.

She tried to ignore most of it, and made her way to her cabin, getting her things to be ready for the bathhouse.

Walking back out, she saw that the lights in the dining hall were still on. She wondered if Ren saved a portion for himself and hoped that he enjoyed it as much as everyone else did.

Sumire was in and out of the bathhouse, only taking a shower, and rushed back to her cabin. She looked for her phone.

Did you have any curry for yourself?

_Of course_

How did you know we were coming?

_I have a little helper keeping an eye out for me_

Is Morgana here?

_Yep_

_He tried to help and complained as usual_

_He’s only a cat when he doesn’t want to do something_

Sumire giggled at that, remembering the screams of animal abuse that she heard when Ren had come to visit for New Years, keeping some fish out of his paws.

_I have to start prepping for breakfast tomorrow_

_Good night Sumi_

She smiled at her nickname, thinking about calling it a night, when she remembered Futaba’s text.

She searched through her phone, but she couldn’t find it.

You said you put the next two on my phone?

_Ah, give me a sec_

_On your phone, they may be, but I didn’t leave an access point_

_Here_

_When you open it, hold it for ten seconds or it gets hot_

Hot?

_I spent a lot of time making them, so appreciate them_

That was the last text that she got from Futaba and two ‘folders’ showed up, labeled as ‘two’ and ‘three.’

She tapped on the first one.

An image of Ren’s back popped up, defined with muscles from his Phantom Thieving days.

Sumire blushed, immediately backing out.

That was what Futaba meant when she said that it would get hot.

She tapped the icon and held it like Futaba said, and the next entry opened.

  * _May 7 th, 20XX_



_It seems like Mishima may not be just all talk about supporting the Phantom Thieves._

_Morgana said that there was something that he wanted to try today, so we meet up at Shibuya, near the Hachiko statue exit._

_Ryuji asked what we were doing there, when Morgana told us that there were small things that we could do to sway the thoughts of the public._

_Morgana asked me about Mishima’s web forum that requested help from the Phantom Thieves, and I did mention that there was a request where someone was being stalked._

_It was an ex-boyfriend, so a name was easy to get, and then the surprise came._

_When we entered the name and a place called Mementos, Shibuya station square was completely different._

_No one was there, as if we had entered a Palace, and we looked around wondering where everyone went._

_Then Morgana told us to go down into the station._

_The station itself got really weird, as it got all dark with a red glow coming from somewhere._

_Then a sound came from deeper down, and I shivered a bit at hearing it._

_We all looked at Morgana for an explanation, and he said that his place was the public Palace, that desires not yet strong enough manifest here and can be nipped in the bud if we act fast enough._

_Then the cat turned into a car._

_Maybe I am crazy._

_Regardless, we made our way down, with me on driving duty._

_Ann asked me if I got it._

_M@rio K@rt says yes._

_We went down and started looking for the target from the forum. Shadows that were in Kamoshida’s Palace started to show up, and some Shadows that weren’t there also showed._

_They weren’t too much of a problem, as we only spent time going through one floor before we found our target._

_He wasn’t too much of a challenge, having Arsene weaken him for Ann and Ryuji to finish him off._

_After that, we made our way deeper into Mementos, only to find that there was a door that was blocking our way down._

_We went up and tapped, and the door opened to a cheering Morgana. He said that this what he wanted to confirm,_ _so he said not to worry and that we could call it a day._

_When we returned to the entrance, there was a little kid there._

_Like, Morgana’s Palace form small. His name was Jose, and he said there were flowers in Mementos that he used to study humans. He said that if we looked and gave them to him, he would trade us items that he would find._

_Morgana was already tense around him, but he was clearly jealous because Ann called Jose cute._

_To rub it in a bit more, I said we would gladly help him out, and that Morgana was a bit upset because he was hungry._

_Jose only nodded and handed Morgana a pack of cookies._

_It was hard not to laugh._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word's autocorrect tried to fix 'itadakimasu' into 'stadium' for some reason, and I thought it was funny.


	9. Chapter 8

Sumire didn’t get to read more after that, as she heard the other girls who would be staying in the cabin with her coming her way.

As such, she brushed her teeth and went to sleep, or at last tried to pass off as going to sleep, as chatter about Ren kept coming until the others went to sleep.

Breakfast the next day only made the talk even worse.

“Since dinner yesterday was a heavy curry, breakfast today is going to be a light meal of rice, grilled salmon and miso soup. I hope you enjoy, and please work hard today.”

She wanted to punch something.

Ren was just being himself, but he was charming everyone by just presenting breakfast.

It was unfair.

And the charm was kept up for diner as well.

It was _mapo tofu_ with eggplant substituting for the beef, served with potato salad and salted cucumber in vinegar dressing.

Why did it have to be so good?!

Like the day before, she flew in and out of the bathhouse and brushed her teeth before-hand, not wanting to scramble and make it look like she was doing something else when her cabin mates arrived.

She opened the file.

  * _May 13 th, 20XX_



_The more time I spend at school, the more I wonder how they’ve managed to get by without anyone coming down on their asses._

_Even today, there was an announcement that pulled everyone out of class during exam week._

_I get what they were trying for, many of the girls seemed to let it slide, but surely introducing a counselor after exams would’ve been the better decision._

_Not like it matters._

_He approached us when the announcement was done, and it seems that we’re under mandatory counseling because of our connections with Kamoshida._

_Can’t blame him for doing his job, though the snacks he says he’s going to bring better not be all dagashi._

  * _May 14 th, 20XX_



_It may be just me, but we might have accidentally run into our latest target._

_On our way to school, Ann felt someone eyeing her from the train, so Ryuji and I intercepted the person when we left the station._

_It was a student from a different school, fine arts apparently, as his teacher came to pick him up._

_I think the teacher’s the target. His name is Madarame, and I vaguely remember that name from when we did our first request in Mementos._

_However, the pupil seemed very invested in getting Ann to be his model, so he gave us tickets to his teacher’s gallery to convince Ann to come._

_I’ll be keeping an eye on both._

  * _May 16 th, 20XX_



_We got a hit._

_Madarame indeed has a Palace._

_When we were at the gallery yesterday, Ryuji and I were forced out of the crowd by some diehard fans, so he took the time to see if there was anything about Madarame he could find._

_And on the forum, there was indeed an anonymous request to take Madarame down._

_The request had claims of abuse, plagiarism, and even suicide listed as things that had happened under Madarame._

_Since his pupil, Kitagawa, wants Ann to model for him, he gave Ann the address of his residence._

_And then we checked for a Palace._

_As it was our first dive, we didn’t go too deep in, but what we saw was certainly indicative of a good target._

_Unlike the castle before, Madarame’s Palace was a museum. What we saw inside was disturbing in a different sense from before._

_All the paintings on display were portraits of people, and we even saw the guy we took down in Mementos._

_And then there was one of Kitagawa._

_All of that was relatively close to the entrance. Just behind that, there was a statue that proclaimed the greatness of Madarame stealing ideas: that those who do not give him ideas are not meant to be kept or would be trained to provide._

_That was confirmation we needed to go for Madarame, and we will be checking with Kitagawa tomorrow._

Breakfast was an omelet where carrot greens and spinach were mixed with the eggs, as tomatoes and ham made up the filling, served with two slices of strawberry jam toast.

Dinner was _oyakodon_ , eggs mixed with chicken served atop a bowl of rice, along with a carrot and daikon radish salad.

Even more swoons coming from the girls didn’t help, especially since some of them wanted to know a bit more about how Ren treated her in private. Asking in the bathhouse also probably wasn’t the best time to do so.

  * _May 17 th, 20XX_



_To see if we could get more information, when we went to check on him, he was less than pleased when he saw that Ryuji and I were there as well._

_We told him our worries about having Ann there with these kinds of rumors, and he almost lost it._

_Madarame had to come out and tell him to relax, and that it was an action done out of concern for their friend and that he didn’t have to worry about it._

_Kitagawa got a bit quiet after that and let us in._

_Ann sat down to model, but after several minutes, Kitagawa claimed that he wasn’t going making progress and that he wanted a nude._

_Ann naturally freaked out, and we had to leave when Ryuji confronted Kitagawa about the claims. Kitagawa responded in saying that he was going to contact the police over it, so we left in a hurry._

_We’re going to have to dig in a bit if we’re going to see why Kitagawa defends Madarame._

  * _May 18 th, 20XX_



_I may have pushed everyone a bit too much today._

_While we have all certainly grown since our fight against Kamoshida, Arsene as a Persona is way more powerful than what Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana have._

_That may not have been as much of a problem as it was with Kamoshida, but I won’t be able to carry them forever. At best, Arsene still only hits one target, which requires that everyone else follows up on what I do._

_Since clearing Kamoshida’s Palace, Igor increased the number of Personas I can wield. Going forward, I’ll have to avoid using Arsene as much as possible and putting the emphasis on having everyone else initiate and I follow up. There may be times where I may not be able to reach them or they reach me, so I have to be able to make it so that they can take initiative without needing my approval._

_Regardless, we got a bit more confirmation about Kitagawa’s situation from our previous target in Mementos._

_Mishima set him up to meet us, but we spoke through a pillar, not showing our faces being a requirement for the conversation._

_The target spoke about how passionate he had been about art, and how being suddenly thrown out of Madarame’s care and being shunned by the art community under Madarame’s influence turned his passion into stalking. How one of Madarame’s former pupils couldn’t take the plagiarism anymore and killed himself._

_I had to cover Ann’s mouth at that._

_Then Kitagawa came up._

_Madarame took him in when he was very young after his mother had died and was practically raised by him. Even so, even if he wants to leave, he doesn’t have anywhere to go. As such, our target was afraid that he might end up killing himself._

_Kitagawa did mention that if he didn’t get a new painting out by the end of Madarame’s exhibit, he would be in trouble, so we have to get the treasure before it ends._

_Otherwise, Ann’s going to be blackmailed into modeling nude, and I don’t want to hear Morgana whine about preserving Ann’s chastity daily, so we started._

_The deeper we got into Madarame’s Palace, the more portraits of former pupils we found. It’s an absurd number, no way he had this many students under him._

_It makes me wonder if he thinks so little of them that their faces are now all distorted and just strewn about his Palace, or he really did destroy this many peoples’ hopes and dreams._

_We also learned the existence of an important new enemy type._

_Dumb cat got too excited next to a valuable and triggered a trap. I had to get everyone else out and questioned him about it._

_Morgana looked a bit sheepish, but he said there was something off about it, so I looked at it._

_A new Shadow popped out, and Morgana mewed, saying that we needed to catch it._

_It was rather slow and didn’t attack, so that wasn’t an issue, but it took way too many hits._

_We were just lucky that it went down to an item that we had picked up earlier, but if they can tank hits from Arsene as well, we’ll have to luck our way through taking them down._

_After it went down, the amount of money it dropped was insanely high, and it looked like everyone else grew a bit more from it._

_We’ll gladly take advantage of these Treasure demons, as Morgana calls them._

_After we beat the Treasure demon, we made our way to a large courtyard, whose entrance was lined by sliding doors, which opened themselves to us when we approached. Behind them was an even larger set of sliding doors blocked by a set of lasers._

_To see what would happen, I picked a leaf from a bush in the courtyard and had Morgana use his Persona to guide it into the laser._

_It fried on contact._

_We thought that we had reached a dead-end when Morgana said he might have seen the door from somewhere._

_When we were all in Madarame’s house for modeling, Morgana left a bit to scout around and said that there was a door with a hefty lock on it that had the same pattern as the one before us. As such, he said that we would end our dive for the day and that we had to do something in the real world._

_We just need Madarame to see someone other than himself enter the room that he locked._

_And the only to get that to happen is by having Ann model._

_She looked like she was going to skin the cat alive for the suggestion._

_But we don’t have any other choice. I hope I can find something to make up for this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Food. The whole reason Ren's there. Let's talk about that.
> 
> Starting with mapo tofu; if you bake eggplant and mix the filling with beans and nuts, I don't remember what kind you use, you can use it as a beef substitute. Also, mapo tofu is easily one of my favorite Chinese dishes of all time. And for the longest time, the Midwest in me thought it was mabo tofu.
> 
> Dagashi are a group of snacks that are mainly categorized by their super low prices. That doesn't mean their bad though, but some are definitely an acquired taste, I can attest.
> 
> I first learned about adding greens to the egg for an omelet from a children's book series called Guri and Gura. So I was really small. I don't remember the book, but there was one where they grew a shit ton of carrots, and one of the ways they cooked them was using the greens in tamagoyaki. I tried that, but the way it's written is my preferred way of making it. You don't have to use carrot greens if you don't want to though, so experiment with other types of greens.
> 
> Oyakodon is pretty fucked up from a naming standpoint. Oyako means parent and child, egg and chicken, you get the idea. There are other versions of oyakodon where fish is used, such as salmon and salmon roe. Don is just an abbreviation of donburi, a dish where something is placed on top of a bowl of rice. The beef bowls in-game are a form of donburi, specifically gyudon.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a bit because I decided like an idiot to start a Nuzlock in Pokemon Sapphire. It's my first Nuzlock and I'm already sad about losing three mons.

Sumire paused after finishing the entry. The entrance of the cabin was rather quiet: at this point, she had come to expect that the other girls would be coming in by now.

But it was quiet, perhaps quieter than she had expected when something started scratching at the door.

Unsure if she should check on the sound or not, a familiar voice calling out “Let me in,” mewed, prompting her to get up.

“Morgana?” she asked, opening the door to check as a black blur flew past, turning around and stopping at her legs.

“Sumire~~~,” the cat complained, rubbing himself against her legs. “I had a small bite of fish that Ren was using for broth and he threw me out,” he moaned.

Looking at Morgana, Sumire made her way back towards her futon, sitting down and patted her lap, inviting the cat to come.

“I haven’t seen you in four months, and this is what you come to me for?” she asked, as Morgana scampered over.

“But I’ve had to keep eyes on the entrance of the dining hall, I couldn’t leave,” he whined, rubbing his head against Sumire’s stomach.

Sumire only laughed as she pet his head, scratching under his chin and watched him melt under her touch.

“Meow~~~~,” he moaned, leaning into the touch. Sumire smiled as she watched the cat relax, enjoying the happy look on Morgana’s face.

“How’s Ren been?” she asked, taking the chance to pull some information out of the cat. As much as she trusted Ren, she knew there were things that he didn’t tell her.

She didn’t blame him for keeping secrets; she knew that he was forced into living a life where he had to hide everything to survive. It was just that in the few intimate moments that they had together, she felt that it was the only time she got to see the cracks in his mask, see the tears that carved their path down.

“Hm~~~, he’s been fine. He was super excited about coming here,” Morgana mewed, pushing his chin on Sumire’s fingers as if requesting more scratches.

She answered in kind, giving the cat the scratches he wanted as an excited mew leaving his mouth.

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Nya~~, that’s all,” Morgana answered, pushing harder into Sumire’s hand.

Sumire smiled, giving him more vigorous scritches, letting her worries fade with her petting the cat.

As her mind stilled, her recent readings came in, so she took her chance.

“Hey Morgana,” Sumire started, stopping the scratches and looking down at the cat.

“Hm?” he responded, looking at the stop from his scritches.

“This came across my mind recently, but do you remember the events of Madarame’s Palace?”

“Why do you ask?” Morgana wondered, tilting his head. If he remembered correctly, the only interaction they would’ve had with her was the cleaning event in the park, so there shouldn’t have been much for him to say.

“Nothing, I just remembered that Yusuke requested Ann to be a nude model, and I wondered how you dealt with it.”

Morgana froze at the question, very keenly remembering that he never heard anyone from that time telling her about the nude part.

“Wh-where did you hear about that?” he asked, suddenly terrified that Ann may have brought it up by accident during a call with her.

“Hm, Ren told me about it.”

“Di-did he now?” Morgana asked, looking away with a look of betrayal on his face.

Even if she didn’t think about it, Sumire actually never had such a conversation with Ren about the previous targets the Phantom Thieves had done. Everyone involved with Madarame’s Palace agreed that it was probably best not to bring it up again, and Futaba needed a few figures to be kept quiet about the whole ordeal.

“Well, I did get the cold shoulder from Lady Ann for a while, but we moved on by Kaneshiro. I think seeing how much Madarame had hurt Yusuke turned her ire away from me,” he said, his mind wondering what other things Ren may have said to her.

“That was it?” Sumire asked.

“That was it.”

She looked at the cat, seemingly unable to believe that he didn’t get any other form of retribution.

“Yusuke didn’t get anything either?” Sumire continued, wondering how much had passed under the bridge with them.

“No, I think she felt sorry for him after Madarame’s Shadow appeared before him for the first time. Yusuke was really broken after that first encounter.”

“She’s too forgiving,” she muttered, thinking about how kind Ann had been.

“Still, that’s what makes Lady Ann so great. I just still need to find a way to make it so she acknowledges me as a man,” Morgana said, proudly looking forward.

“She acknowledges you as a cat.”

“No! Stop it! You act more like Ren every time you say something about me being a cat!”

Sumire laughed at that, something stirring in her heart when Morgana said she was acting like Ren when the sounds of the other girls started to make their way to the cabin.

“You should go. I’ll open a window for you.”

Wiping off the water that had landed on her glasses, Sumire sat quietly in the dining hall, listening to the activity going on around her and the kitchen.

The rain was an unexpected surprise for everyone, as gymnasts and coaches alike had gotten rained on during their morning jog, their final exercise before they officially started their break day.

She had been looking forward to this day, as she had gotten a text from Ren two days prior, which made her so excited about this day.

_Hey_

_I have shopping to do on break day_

_Want to join me?_

Yes!

_Great!_

_Meet me after breakfast on break day_

The dining hall had been the closest location when it started to come down, and everyone rushed in while Ren was still making breakfast, surprising him at the sound of the door suddenly opening and the squeaking of wet running shoes on the floor. When he looked out from the counter, he was surprised to see everyone come in soaking wet and quickly averted his eyes, putting his attention back to breakfast for the day.

Morgana was also spotted in the dining hall, unable to escape to the kitchen fast enough due to being unable to hear them come from the rain, and hissed at girls that tried to get closer to him, hoping that Sumire would notice and rescue him.

Once she had finished wiping them off, she did hear his cries of help and made her way towards the window Morgana was cornered on.

Trying to get closer, Sumire was about 50 cm away when Morgana took the chance to jump, landing on Sumire’s head.

“Oh! It seems that I still got it!” he mewed in satisfaction, feeling Sumire’s arms come under his forelimbs to pick him of her head, a small scratch on her head as one of his claws nicked her from her his landing.

Making her way towards the kitchen door, Sumire opened it to let Morgana go, facing Ren as he turned to see who had opened the door.

“Morning!” Sumire answered cheerily, the smile on her face slowly fading when Ren turned away from her, eyes focusing on the bowls and food he was serving.

“Ren?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Your clothes,” was all he said, keeping his eyes away before shaking his hand, getting it a bit too close to a hot pot.

Sumire looked down and flushed, covering her chest when she realized what he had meant.

Even if it was only her sports bra, seeing it through her wet shirt somehow made it more exciting for Ren as he kept his eyes away.

She was blushing as she made her way out of the kitchen, drawing the eyes of everyone as they watched her covering her chest.

Breakfast was tough to get through with everyone looking at her, having figured out what the boundaries between the two of them were.

With umbrella open, Sumire made her way towards the dining hall, a plastic bag in hand. She was dressed in her workout clothes, with the clothes that she was planning to change to in said bag.

Her cabinmates didn’t say anything as she left, with knowing grins on their faces as she went out the door, many of them sending texts to the rest of their friends.

When she could see through the rain, she saw the car near the back of the dining hall, as the lights in the dining hall were still on.

When she entered the dining hall, she saw Ren waiting for her in the dining area, a smile on his face when he saw her enter.

“Hey Sumi,” he said gently, getting up and made her way towards her.

“Hi,” Sumire smiled back, picking her pace up as she made her way towards him, a light kiss on her lips as they met in the middle.

“Can I get dressed?” she asked, backing up as she left his lips and raising her bag, as Ren nodding in approval.

When she came out, she was dressed in a light blue short-sleeved blouse with a matching skirt that had a small red belt running across it. She was missing her normal leggings, as no-show socks with leather loafers were on her feet, as she carried a small red handbag.

“How pretty,” Ren said softly as Sumire smiled, readjusting her glasses to hide her nervousness.

“Ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“Through the back way, my fair darling. While the guards are looking away.”


	11. Chapter 10

As they sat in the car, Sumire was enjoying the sound of rain hitting the window and the roof of the car. The car was rather quiet, as Ren was keeping his eyes on the road, telling her before they got in that he wasn’t going to talk the drive down the hill.

As such, she just kept watching his face, smiling at memories of him driving everyone around in Mementos.

They stayed in that quiet state for about ten minutes, when the road flattened out and Ren took the initiative.

“Is there something you want to see when we get to town?” he started, briefly glancing at the side.

“No, not really,” she answered, looking back at Ren as a predatory grin flashed across his face.

Before she could comprehend the grin, Ren moved one hand off the wheel to rustle Sumire’s hair, a small smile on his face as he put his eyes back on the road.

“Stop it,” she complained half-heartedly, a small smile on her lips as his hand moved back to the wheel. It had become a little ritual between the two of them, where he would rustle her hair a bit before they would go out somewhere. Whether it was at the door of her apartment, the entrance of Leblanc when he stayed there (work included), or at their greeting spot, he was going to mess her hair up a bit.

A chuckle left Ren’s mouth as Sumire brushed her hair with her fingers to fix some of the wilder spots that were left in the wake of the rustling. He had been careful not to overdo it as he keenly remembered a time where he was a bit too rough and made Sumire cry when she saw her reflection. He spent the entire time trying to fix it, but it only made it worse, forcing them to cancel their plans for the day.

At least he got her to laugh a bit at the end with how pathetic he looked when he had given up, the look of desperation on his face for trying to and failing to fix her hair was a rare look that Sumire never saw.

He burned quite a hole in his pocket with figures to get Futaba to let him practice with her hair.

“Nothing you really want to do?” he asked again, as Sumire nodded, looking back at after she was satisfied with her hair.

“Then there’s a place we can go to get an early lunch: I’m worried that what’s on the menu back at camp may not be enough for you,” he said jokingly, prompting a pout from Sumire and a laugh from Ren.

After a few more minutes of driving, Ren pulled into a lot next to the local shopping district where shops that the camp company had recommended for ingredients.

It was a relatively small shopping district, stretching for about 320 meters with three offshoots from the main street, so the shopping that Ren wanted to do would be done quickly.

Even though no one was shopping during the rain, all the people who were running the stores were rather talkative, something that Sumire thought was rather nice.

One of the first shops that they went to was a vegetable stop that was on the list of stores that had a deal with the camping company.

As Ren started to browse some of the vegetables, Sumire hung out in the back; watching him shop for something that wasn’t a date for them was a rare chance for her. She was so absorbed in watching him shop that she was surprised when a voice came her way.

“Why hello there,” an old voice came, as Sumire tuned to the source of the voice.

“Oh, hello,” she responded in kind, pausing for a bit after being taken by surprise of the old woman, nodding her head.

The woman was dressed in baggy clothing, along with an apron that was dirtied with many years of use, as her wrinkled face looked at Sumire.

“Your rather dressed up for coming to a place like this,” the woman said, looking at Sumire’s dress. “Haven’t gone out in a while?” the woman asked, as a man approached Ren, looking to see if he was ready to buy.

Sumire flushed, nodding in embarrassment as the woman laughed, while Ren went further back into the store to talk with the man.

“That so, that so,” the woman said, watching the man that was with Ren as he seemed to be going over his list of groceries, reaching for his glasses.

Sumire looked at Ren, seemingly wanting to stand by him, a look which was not missed by the woman.

“He’s a charmer, isn’t he?” the woman asked, as Sumire only nodded weakly, as the man in back laughed, seemingly amused about something Ren had said.

“You better get married quick, he’s probably wanted wherever he goes,” the woman said, as Sumire paused, seemingly unable to believe that the old woman would just openly say something like that.

“Two years after she graduates, I do plan on making it happen by then,” Ren said, making Sumire freeze at what he had said and surprising the old woman.

“R-really?” Sumire asked, trying to see if Ren was messing with her, to which Ren had only given her a Joker grin, and a quick peck on the cheek.

The woman could only laugh and complement Ren for being such a charmer, as he smiled back, looking over his list for everything else that he would need until the next break day.

As they sat in a small store, Ren smiled as he watched Sumire destroy a bowl of udon.

After he had finished buying everything that he needed till the next break day, they had dropped everything off in the car and had come back to give Sumire an extra meal that would cover for her appetite that wouldn't be satisfied with the lunch that would be served today.

“Enjoying it?” he asked, watching her happily slurp the noodles down as she nodded in conformation, taking a sip of water to save the broth.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Ren asked, a neutral look overtaking his smile.

“Yeah?” Sumire asked, her glasses fogged by the hot broth she had just drunk, a look of satisfaction on her face.

“Morgana said you asked him about Madarame’s Palace the other night,” he started, to which she nodded. “Did I ever tell you about Ann modeling for Yusuke?”

“Yeah, you did,” she answered carefully, wondering where Ren was coming from.

“Did I ever say anything about nudity?” he asked, as a feeling of uncertainty started to enter Sumire.

She bit her lip.

“Did I?” Ren asked again, his face neutral.

“No, I don’t think you did,” she answered softly, looking away from him as she realized what he was asking her.

“Really? Cause Morgana said that I had told you, and I never remember telling you,” Ren continued, making Sumire squirm under his gaze.

As she had averted her eyes, she missed how Ren looked at her, debating internally if he should say anything, before he gave a soft sigh.

“Where did you learn it from?”

“-iry.”

Ren paused.

“What?” he asked softly, a hint of curiosity present in his voice.

“- diary,” Sumire said again, this time a bit more audible to Ren.

There was a pause in the conversation when Ren leaned in. “What about a diary?” he asked, an idea running in his head as he thought about the only way Sumire would’ve gotten that kind of information.

“Your diary.”

Ren sat there for a moment, leaning back, seemingly thinking about what the information he had gotten.

“Did Futaba do anything?” he finally asked softly, a gentler look on his face.

“Yes,” Sumire answered quietly, as a fear of anger and disappointment welled in her, the udon suddenly tasting not as good.


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't said this before, but I really don't like the title of this work.  
> I'm considering changing it to 'Recollections of Your Heart,' so if you think it's a better title, let me know in the comments down below.

The ride back to camp was quiet, as Ren wondered if he had made a mistake.

Sumire didn’t say anything, afraid of upsetting Ren with anything that she could say, while Ren was unsure of what he was supposed to do in this situation. While he could tell that Sumire had felt bad about reading his diary from his time as a Phantom Thief and not telling him, he thought that he was in no position to judge her for hiding such things when he had hid the fact that he was in an environment that he was actively risking his life.

When they pulled up next to the dining hall, Ren barely opened his door and poked an umbrella out and opened it. He slid out of the door when the umbrella opened and made his way to the other side of the car, where Sumire was getting out, eyes averting him as the look of guilt was accented by tears, no umbrella in hand.

“Sumi,” Ren said softly, moving his umbrella over her as she kept her eyes away.

“Sumi,” he said with more force, prompting her to face him.

“I’m not angry at you, I just want to know what Futaba gave you and how I mad I should be at her,” he said, as Sumire looked up, as if unsure of what she should say.

“I have a basic idea of what Futaba may have done, and I will let Sojiro punish her as necessary, but I have no right to be mad at you for hiding a secret like this. I’ve done something similar to so many other people,” he said firmly, putting a hand on her cheeks.

Sumire only looked on in surprise, not expecting to hear the resolve in his voice. She looked like she didn’t know what she should do, before pulling in closer, seeing wet spots on Ren from him holding the umbrella over her.

“I should still apologize,” she answered weakly, adjusting the angle of the umbrella and averting her eyes again as she felt the tears come, leaning back out of the coverage of the umbrella as if she couldn’t accept the kindness Ren was showing her.

Ren paused as rain fell on her face, before shaking his head, looking down at her and moved the umbrella over her, letting the rain fall on him.

“If you want to apologize, don’t let the rain hide your tears and let me see them,” he said, as Sumire kept her eyes away, before he closed the distance, and came face to face with her.

“And if I can’t see your tears, I can’t wipe them away and to accept your apologies,” he said softly, wiping the area where her tears should’ve been if it hadn’t been for the rain.

Sumire looked at Ren, as if still unable to accept his kindness before she moved to cover Ren with the umbrella again.

She embraced him, an action which he eagerly returned, as the tears slowly started to stop.

“What should I do to apologize,” came weakly, to which Sumire felt several kisses to her forehead, making her look up.

Ren just smiled, kissing her on the cheek this time, and embraced her.

“Instead of apologizing to me, read my entries back at me, starting from wherever you left off, and let me listen to you.”

He was just too nice.

Looking up to see his face, Sumire glanced from side to side, as if wondering what she should do, when something pulled her out of it.

“Hey! Did you get my fish?” came from a barely open door, as Morgana’s small head poked out, looking at the scene before him.

His head was poking out from the back door of the dining hall, panting evidence of his attempt to open the door that was heavier than most doors that he was capable of opening, his desire of fish leading his presence.

Ren and Sumire turned to look at the cat, separating as Ren made his way as Morgana panicked, rushing back into the dining hall.

When they had come out, Morgana was in Ren’s arms, ignoring the cries of mercy from Morgana as he walked into the rain, standing there for a few moments, before dropping him to the ground. As soon as he was released, Morgana scrambled back to the dining hall, glaring at Ren as his fur was soaked.

“I think you love fish more than Ann,” Ren said softly, making his way back to Sumire, who had taken the umbrella from him when he approached Morgana.

“What! How dare you question my love!” Morgana shouted, back arched as Ren started to move some groceries, from the car, accepting the umbrella that Sumire was holding for him.

Ren ignored him as he made his way into the dining hall, as Morgana took the chance to enter as well, stopping next to the air vent to take advantage of the hot air that was starting to flow out of it.

Sumire giggled at the look of Morgana huddling next to the vent, as she watched Ren get a bucket and mop out after he dropped off the first bag of groceries, making his way back to the door where she stood, extending a hand to her.

Sitting down on a chair that Ren had brought in from the dining hall, Sumire watched him as he started to prep for diner, his back facing her as he was chopping vegetables.

After Ren dropped off the groceries and got changed, he invited her to help him make lunch, and it was perhaps the most fun she had at camp until this point.

She was all smiles, happily assisting Ren with making the sandwiches that would be making up lunch, and after seeing what was being served, she had to agree with Ren’s decision to treat her to udon earlier that morning that it was correct.

But once lunch had finished, he was quiet, cleaning up and preparing for dinner, seemingly ignoring her presence after she had snuck into the kitchen.

“Sumi?”

Snapping to attention upon hearing her name, she saw Ren wiping his hands as he put the vegetables to the side, looking at her as if he were waiting for a response.

“Yes,” she answered, hoping that he was going to do something about the tense atmosphere.

“I would like to hear your voice a bit. If you don’t mind, would you start reading my diary,” he said, a gentle smile on his face.

Sumire paused, checking his face to see if he was serious, before reaching for her phone, the smile on his face unwavering as he waited for her.

She opened the folder, looking again to see if she had permission.

He nodded at her.

She took a deep breath:

  * _May 21 st, 20XX_



_We’re going in tomorrow._

_Ann’s said that she’s built the courage she needs to buy time for Morgana to pick the lock, so I hope that she doesn’t lose it when the time comes._

  * _May 22 nd, 20XX_



_There are many things that I need to think about._

_First, Yusuke is now a Phantom Thief. I think._

_He has a Persona as well, because of course he does._

_Ann seemed to be able to stall long enough to let Morgana pick the lock and pull Yusuke in while Madarame was watching. What Yusuke saw in there and their purpose was confirmed by Madarame’s Shadow when he met us on our way out._

_He had entered into the courtyard of the Palace with the assistance of Morgana, and he was seemingly confused when he saw Ann’s outfit, and I think he had a small panic attack when he saw Morgana’s Palace form._

_I only heard afterward, but from what I understood, the room that was locked was full of copies ‘Sayuri.’ It was the painting that made Ann want to come and see the exhibit that Madarame was hosting, and the scheme Madarame had with it was quite despicable._

_His Shadow laid it out to us as we tried to escape, the basic idea being that the painting had been stolen, he managed to find it and would sell it to collectors for a high price in exchange for keeping it a secret._

_And upon hearing that, Yusuke asked Madarame about the pursuit of beauty, to which his only response was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that anything that doesn’t make him money was worthless to Madarame._

_I think that was the part that broke Yusuke because that was the point where he summoned his Persona for the first time._

_It was a man with ridiculously high-heeled geta shoes and an equally ridiculous pipe in its hands, as its face had the same pattern on it as what you would think of when the word ‘kabuki’ was said._

_It also looked like if I insulted the hair, I would get a punch to the face, though I don’t think I’ll end up like Angelo._

_Yusuke fought well, but it’s clear that he’s going to need some work before he can fight with us as equals, so we’ll hit Mementos before we go back to the Palace._

_After leaving the Palace, Yusuke thought about what he wanted to do and decided that he was going to assist us in changing Madareme’s heart. He also didn’t say anything about modeling, but I think Ann is in the clear._

_I’ll ask once everything’s done to make sure._


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's official now, the title of this story has been changed to 'Recollections of Your Heart.'

When Sumire looked up at Ren, she saw that his back was shaking, seemingly laughing about something.

“Ren?” she asked, looking at him with concern.

“I-I don’t remember writing down a bit with Angelo,” he chuckled, as a look of confusion came over Sumire, wondering what he was talking about.

“Didn’t write it?” she asked, as Ren waved her off, some small chuckles escaping his mouth.

“I, that’s probably something Futaba wrote in,” he continued laughing, placing the knife down and putting his hand on his chest in an attempt to steady his breathing.

“I only learned about it after she became a member,” he said after he calmed down a bit, picking up the board of cut vegetables, moving his way towards a large pan.

“She taught you?” Sumire asked, to which Ren shook his head.

“She showed me would be more accurate,” Ren said as he started to work on the next group of vegetables, rinsing them off under the sink.

“Should I be worried?” she asked, suddenly very nervous what Futaba may have shown him.

“It’s tamer than most of the things that she’s made me watch with her, so it’s fine,” he said, a distant chuckle coming from his voice as he gave a carrot a thousand-mile stare.

“Sh-should I continue reading?” Sumire asked, suddenly worried for Ren.

“Go ahead.”

  * _May 24 th, 20XX_



_We resumed our dive into Madarame’s Palace today, and we’re almost there._

_We’ve made it to the Treasure, but or method of procuring it is not yet clear. Yusuke took a hit when he got too aggressive, so we stopped our dive to care for him._

_He apologized, but it seems that we still need to work on our teamwork._

_The Palace, got weird again after we passed through the courtyard. In a large display area, there were landscape paintings that were hanging on the wall, but something was strange about them. Yusuke tried to put a hand on it, and he phased through it. He recoiled quickly, but nothing had happened._

_We thought about the strange behavior of the paintings, but when we saw that the path to continue was above us and that another painting led to the path, I took a chance._

_Grabbing one of our items, I put it in my hand and put my hand through the painting._

_The item fell to the painted ground, so I tried to reach in further to grab it. That’s when it pulled me in and I panicked._

_At first, I thought I was going to suffocate since there was no way that I was going to be able to breathe in a painting and tried to rush back towards everyone else._

_I came out bursting at full speed, tripping on the frame of the painting and nearly trampling Morgana who was my path._

_I sat on the floor, looking at the painting with disbelief, then glancing at the air vent that we would need to crawl through to continue._

_I looked at Morgana, wondering if we could throw him to be a grapple point instead._

“I’m not just some tool be thrown around!”

Sumire was surprised by the sudden outburst Morgana made, as he glared at Ren from the air vent, refusing to leave the source of heat in a rare case of cat-like behavior.

Ren just looked at Morgana for a few seconds before he flicked the end of a carrot towards him.

“Maintain a balanced diet,” was all he said before he turned to face Sumire, indicating that he wanted her to continue reading.

She looked Morgana to see how he would respond, but he was begrudgingly eating the carrot, glaring at Ren as he nibbled on it.

She searched for where she left off.

_After trying again after a few seconds, I managed to keep just my head in and found out that I could breathe. What’s more, the painting was of a bamboo grove, and it smelled kind of nice._

_Committing to step in completely, I walked around a bit, Yusuke watching from a distance as I walked towards the edge of the painting when something pulled me towards it. It was like the pull of me entering from before, and when I looked around, I was closer to the vent that we needed to enter to move on._

_After guiding everyone through the paintings, we found another set of paintings, this time with many different environments. Once more, I took the lead in entering first, tracing a path, and guiding everyone else, when a strange environment showed itself._

_Gold was the only color you could see through the entire area, as stairs and walkways made up the only places you could walk on. I think I also saw a sphere somewhere that had easels on them._

_But the gold was making some of the stairs in the area difficult to walk because the matching color made it impossible to judge depth._

_That same-y-ness kind of helped though when Ryuji tripped on a step and fell through a wall. Well, less wall and more paper, as it was hiding a passage that we made our way through._

_Then came a strange system of hidden keys based on finding the real version of ‘Sayuri’ among a group of counterfeits._

_We tested what we were supposed to do by going up to an obvious fake when a group of Shadows appeared and started to attack us._

Sumire paused at that, looking at Ren to see if he had any response to that. He had finished cutting the vegetables and moved them over to a second pan without a single glance back, as if to say that he was that confident that they could get away with that.

She continued;

_They were easy to deal with after we worked on raising Yusuke to our level, but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way the further we went in._

_We left spotting the counterfeits to Yusuke, an easy and trivial task for him, and we safely made our way into the final exhibit where the Treasure was on display._

_Madarame’s Shadow was standing there with several guards, as the Treasure was surrounded by infrared lasers, so there was no way we were going to be able to walk in and call it a day._

_We started to look around the area, where a gated door blocked our path, so we turned back to find a control room._

_It was easy enough to find, but the options we could use in the control room were somewhat limited._

_We could open the gated door and temporarily turn off the lights, but we couldn’t do anything about the lasers._

_However, there’s a gap in the top of the lasers, so if we could find a way down and back up, it should be easy enough to get the Treasure._

_So, we made our way up when we found the third Will Seed._

_Like in Kamoshida’s Palace, there was a guard there protecting it, so we took the chance to fight it._

_That’s when Yusuke got careless and took a hard hit._

_Thankfully, the Shadow was weak to Morgana’s wind skills, so we managed to take it down without him, but it's a reminder that we still had ways to go before everyone is ready to work as a unit._

_After we grabbed the Will Seed, we found a Safe Room nearby and used the pocket to warp back to the entrance._

“Hey, Ren?” Sumire paused, realizing that she had forgotten about something.

“Yeah?”

“What was the pocket method to move between Safe Rooms?”

Ren paused, seemingly trying to remember.

“Didn’t I go over that in Kamoshida’s Palace?” he asked, making her pause at his nonchalant mention of the section.

She looked at Morgana to see if he had a different reaction, but he looked at her like he thought she was asking him.

Sumire paused.

Did she want to say why she didn’t know?

Why he was mad enough to destroy something that he probably couldn’t get away with damaging.

“F-Futaba said that you tore those pages out after I became me again,” she started, flinching as Ren paused mid-movement, turning to face her as the oven was left open, the hot air rolling across his head.

“Ah, the oven,” Sumire said, bringing Ren back to the moment and closing the door, leaning back and looking at her.

He looked back at the door, unsure of how he should respond.

“I tore some pages out?” he asked, turning to face her again.

Sumire nodded.

“Did I now?” he asked softly, as if the revelation that he did something so rash was a surprise to him.

“S-she put in a later entry saying that you tore it apart by chance because you happened upon a book in his Palace that made you mad after seeing what happened to me,” she said as Ren stood there, trying to figure out something in his mind.

Many emotions ran across his face as he kept thinking, anger and disappointment running across his eyes, his mouth opening and closing many times.

Morgana separated himself from the vent, walking up to Ren and rubbing his body against his ankles as if to comfort him.

Sumire followed Morgana, getting up from her seat and reaching for one of his hands, giving it a gentle squeeze as he looked at them, a mask of neutrality returning to his face.

“Sorry.”


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like a dumbass, I started a monotype run in Alpha Sapphire despite the fact that I still have Nuzlocke run in Sapphire going.

As he stood there, Ren was unsure of what to do as Sumire held onto his hand, and Morgana rubbed against his ankles. He hadn’t expected to be comforted like this, and he was starting to panic on the inside.

On paper, Ren knew what he was supposed to do as he was the person who was frequently on the receiving end of similar situations when he was a Phantom Thief, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He knew that his memories from the days of the false reality were hazy based on how the world had to both correct itself and keep certain things in place, but the fact that he had no memory of such an event scared him.

Staying still for a few seconds longer, Ren eventually squeezed Sumire’s hand back, moving his eyes to look at her as she smiled at him. Happiness gleamed in her eyes as she saw him return her gaze, letting go of her hand as he bent over to pick up Morgana, giving him a few scratches between his ears.

“I guess the world returned before I remembered,” he said softly, getting worried responses from Morgana and Sumire alike, though Morgana couldn’t keep up his look while he was getting scratched, looking away as Ren’s finger asserted its dominance over him.

Ren eventually stopped giving Morgana attention, putting him down on the floor as he turned to look at Sumire, an easy smile on his face. He pressed his forehead against hers, putting a hand behind her head to keep it there.

His nerves were starting to show as his forehead got a bit wet with sweat, but he hoped that he could pass it off as a sheen caused by the oven.

“But I have you now, don’t I? I’ll have to work to make sure that I start to remember everything again,” Ren whispered, looking at Sumire to see if she was responding, having an idea with how she was dealing with the sudden contact. She was blushing as he expected, with no mention of his wet forehead.

Seeing that this was the position that they were going to be stuck in for a few more seconds, Sumire gently pressed back, trying to rub her nose against his.

“Now you’re being unfair,” she whispered back, as Morgana looked up with mixed emotions, unsure of what he was supposed to do. It seemed like Ren would stop coming to him for this kind of support when Sumire was around. He knew that it was coming, he had seen it happen already, but he just wasn’t sure that he was ready to accept that. Looking down and wondering what his new position would be when the two inevitably got even closer, he heard a muffled moan, widening his eyes as he dared to peek up.

What he saw made him immediately run into the dining room, hoping that the timer on the oven rang sooner rather than later.

As dinner was being served that night, Sumire was trying her best to hide some of the marks on her neck as Ren freely exposed his unblemished one.

The days that lead up to their next break day were difficult for Sumire, as she felt the jealousy of the other girls as practice carried on, rubbing her neck in nervousness as she thought about the number of hickeys that the other girls had seen on the back of her neck and her collar bone at the bathhouse.

So when break day came, Sumire was equal parts excited and worried.

Excited that she would be having another date with Ren again, but worried about what sort of things the girls might say to her upon their return.

Like last time, Sumire entered the building with a bag of clothes with her, a light kiss on her lips as she made her way to get changed.

She wore the same light blue blouse from the last break day, but a pair of shorts that hugged her curves were around her waist, something much bolder than she usually wore. Ren thought it was so as he looked at her, her hair swinging in a ponytail as she looked side to side before looking back through her glasses, a look of embarrassment in her eyes as she tried to read his expression.

Seeing that she was looking at him, Ren just smiled at her, a ‘cute’ leaving his lips as he reached for the hair tie keeping her hair up.

Sumire wondered what he was doing, her hair falling back down as one of Ren’s hands had the tie around its wrist when said hand started to rustle her hair.

Pouting at the action, Sumire only accepted it as Ren eventually stopped, adjusting her hair before tying it back up with a grin.

“Let’s go.”

As they sat in the car, Sumire kept a hand near Ren’s seat, letting his hand slide into hers when he felt that he could take his hand off the wheel.

“So, what do you remember about moving between Safe Rooms?” he asked about two minutes out from leaving camp.

“I just remember holding onto everyone’s hands and you running into a wall.”

There was a pause after Sumire had answered, making her wonder if she said something wrong when Ren let out a laugh.

“I guess that’s how it would look to everyone else,” he chuckled, as a look of curiosity overcame Sumire.

“Do you remember the times where I would space out in front of a Palace of the entrance of Mementos near Lavenza?” Ren asked.

“Um, yes,” she answered, trying to see where this was going.

“When that happened, I was going to the area where Lavenza existed, in her world between the Metaverse and ours,” Ren started to explain.

“One such thing from their world that I used was a pocket that could story anything, and like I may have said in my entries, it really is like Dor@emon’s pocket,” he continued, as Sumire tried to think, seeing what she remembered about the robot cat.

“I could pull out copies of said pockets and past them against a wall near the entrance and would paste another pocket in a wall in a Safe Room. Then, since those areas are now connected, instead of putting items in, I would just put myself in and come out of the pocket that would lead to the Safe Room that we needed.”

Sumire paused, wondering if Ren was being serious with how he was talking about pulling himself into a pocket and coming out the other end with the Safe Room they needed. She looked at him as he had a straight face on, thinking what he said was as obvious as the sky being blue.

“Are you being serious?”

“Do I love you?”

A pause.

“That’s unfair,” Sumire murmured.

“Love is unfair. It’s as unfair as the rules of the Metaverse are bizarre,” Ren laughed as he slid his hand into hers, as the town started to come into view once more.

There was a brief silence as Sumire looked out towards the town when she heard her phone vibrate.

She looked at it, then at Ren, her look asking for permission.

Ren nodded.

_I’m disappointed in you Sumi_

_You sell me out?_

What?

_Sojiro asked me if I had done anything and took my allowance away_

I have no idea what you’re talking about

_Ren told Sojiro that I had accessed his diary_

_Did you tell him?_

Oh.

That’s what it was about.

I said something to Morgana by accident

_That cat!_

_He’s not getting any treats from me on New Years_

Sumire laughed at the punishment that Futaba was proposing, shaking her head when Ren turned to look at her, putting her attention back to the text.

_You’re lucky that Ren’s your boyfriend, he said that he was only mad at me and not at you_

_You better pleasure him properly_

Pleasure?

_I’ve sent enough images to him in the time that I sent the first text and this one to take up all the memory on his phone_

_Have fun on your break day_

There was a brief silence before Sumire dropped her phone in horror. It landed on her lap as the blush on her face slowly grew deeper and deeper shades of red as she realized what Futaba had meant by pleasure.

No way.

No way they were doing that yet.

Disregarding the few dates that they could have due to circumstance, making out like they had done last break day was a recent development from her birthday.

Going that far was…

“Sumi?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you remember the dialog between the Thieves and Morgana the first time they try to enter Kaneshiro's Palace, someone asks if Morgana has some kind of device they can use to get up to the Palace, to which Morgana responds with something along the lines of 'I'm not a robot cat!'  
> That was a reference to Doraemon, who I've mentioned in an earlier note, and he's one of the most famous manga/anime characters of all time. The show is broadcast in many East Asian countries, even being broadcasted in countries like India and Pakistan.


	15. Chapter 14

They were quiet as they got out of the car, as Sumire was unable to face Ren.

After he had asked what was wrong in the car, Ren had gotten worried when Sumire was unable to answer, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as her face seemed to grow redder when she looked at him.

But since he couldn’t keep his eyes off the road for very long and Sumire saying that they didn’t need to pull over when he asked her about it, he let it go as they made their way towards the shopping district.

Once they pulled into the lot next to the shopping district, Ren asked if there was anything that Sumire wanted to tell him.

“Um, the text was from Futaba,” she started, watching Ren as he kept his eyes on her.

“And, uh, she said … something in the texts, that, that…”

“Can I see it?” Ren asked, hoping that Sumire was only overreacting, when her face grew an even harsher red, fumbling even harder with her words.

Thinking it was just Futaba’s usual teasing, Ren reached a hand out, hoping that it would calm her down. Sumire flinched, making Ren’s hand pause.

In all the time that they had spent together, the only time that Sumire ever flinched when he put his hand out was when she had an attack, fearing that he was upset at her and was going to physically ‘correct’ something she did wrong.

He didn’t know where that fear had come from; perhaps a story of abuse had been on the news or she heard someone gossiping about it, but he had to slowly move his hand to hers, and give it a gentle squeeze. She eventually calmed down from the contact and cried into his shoulder, apologizing for saying that he would hit her.

Seeing that he had paused when she flinched, Sumire was quick to grasp his hand, looking at him with eyes as if to say that it wasn’t something that he needed to worry about, pulling his hand towards her chest.

While he knew that something that Futaba could send to Sumire would never be done with malicious intent, seeing her flinch like that was something that made Ren rather upset.

Perhaps a talk with Futaba was due.

As they drove back to camp, Ren kept glancing to his side as Sumire seemed to get red when she looked at him, seemingly lost in the fantasies of her mind.

Once they had started shopping, she seemed to have gotten over whatever had made her upset, smiling and holding his hand as they went from store to store. But Ren was still careful, making sure that Sumire was the one who initiated the handholding, keeping her in the corner of his eye as he entered shops.

But when they got back into the car, she suddenly seemed to get nervous again, as if being in an enclosed space with him was something she wasn’t ready for.

He put a hand out to see how she would respond. Sumire took a brief glance, looking at his hand before gently grabbing it, as if it would break with too much force.

When they pulled up to the dining hall, Sumire kept her distance as Ren started to unload the car and move all the groceries in, glancing over at her every now and then to make sure that she was fine.

She was, taking the time to play with Morgana, who was enjoying the scratches, rubbing against her hand every time she paused to adjust her glasses from looking down, and he couldn’t help but smile.

Maybe it was nothing.

After lunch was done and the others had left the dining hall, Sumire made her way back towards the kitchen as Ren was working on prepping for dinner.

His steady back faced her, turning his head to look at her and gave her a smile as he turned his attention back to cutting board, the rhythmic sound of him chopping away gave Sumire a feeling of tranquility.

As she watched his body sway with the movement of his chopping, the thoughts of Futaba’s text seemed like they were nothing.

Ren only checked his phone twice since they had gotten into the car, and he didn’t seem to react to anything that was on it. She hoped that it was bluff, as she quickly learned in the time she had spent going out with Ren: if Futaba wanted something to happen, it happens.

So she relaxed a bit, taking a seat as Morgana jumped up to sit in her lap, reaching for her phone looking through the folder for Ren’s last entry.

“Can I read more of your entries?”

A gentle smile and a nodding head responded.

She took a breath.

  * _May 28 th, 20XX_



_We’ve secured a path to the Treasure._

_After the incident with the third Will Seed, we spent the time in between in Mementos to help Yusuke integrate into the team better._

_We’re going in tomorrow and taking the Treasure._

_I just hope whatever Ryuji and Morgana have in mind actually works._

  * _May 29 th, 20XX_



_There are many things for me to think about right now._

_Am I glad that we defeated Madarame’s Shadow? Yes. Yes I am._

_But there was one thing that we learned from him as his Shadow started to disappear._

_He asked us in a panic where the black-masked figure was._

_Ryuji thought he was just spouting bullshit, but the fear in his voice seemed very genuine._

_It makes me wonder if there’s anyone else that we need to worry about._

_Only time will tell if what Madarame’s Shadow said is true or not._

  * _May 30 th, 20XX_



_This feeling in my gut._

_I think I’m in love._

_As if._

A pause.

A glance that went both ways.

She looked back down at the phone.

_I had somewhat forgotten about it, but a memo on top of my gym clothes greeted me today when I woke up, reminding me about a park clean up we’re doing._

_What a waste of our time._

_The school is trying to make up for the damage done by having Kamoshida exposed, but just some cleanup even isn’t enough._

_As I was making my way to the park, Yoshizawa Kasumi, as I now know, was trying to move away from someone who was getting too comfortable with her._

_She was struggling, but no one in the crowd tried to move in to save her._

_It triggered some memories for me as I pushed my way through, grabbing the perp’s hand as Yoshizawa slid behind me. After trying to see if he could get me to move, he gave up and walked away, seemingly insulting Yoshizawa as he mumbled away._

_After she thanked me for protecting her, she scurried off, saying she would get her gym clothes from school._

_I didn’t see her again till after the cleanup was over, and she asked me to eat a liquid with her._

_As she asked me where my group went, and a sad smile crossed her face as she heard my answer._

_It seems that when you’re untouchable, you are unable to touch._

_Afterwards, we had a small discussion, and it seems like Yoshizawa is sincere to a fault._

_She apologized over something that I had honestly forgotten about and said some more things about rumors surrounding me._

_If I had done any of the things she listed as rumors, forget Tokyo, I couldn’t live anywhere. I threw in driving without a license as a bonus._

_She seemed to laugh about it and started her introduction. Or would’ve if a balloon didn’t slip out of a kid’s hand._

_As she jumped and landed with the balloon in hand, something had fallen out of her pocket on the jump, and that was where I learned her name._

_It was her student ID._

_After she returned the balloon, she happily nodded and smiled, saying that gymnastics was the reason behind her being an honor student._

_That when the idea came to ask her for tips._

_Morgana could’ve been a bit quieter though._

A hiss came from her lap, as Morgana glared at Ren, who held the tip of a cucumber menacingly.

“Do we need to maintain your diet?”

Morgana shrunk down.

She continued.

_She agreed surprisingly, saying that she wanted an ear to listen to her from time to time._

_A low price for skills in the Metaverse._

_Afterwards, we exchanged info and started some basic training._

_Or Yoshizawa said it was._

_My stomach still doesn’t feel so good._

As she happily showed that she was free of marks at dinner and in the bathhouse, Sumire was all smiles when she sat down on her futon. She got a text and hoped that it was Ren, as today had been the last break day and last ‘date’ of sorts.

She hoped that maybe it was a discussion of some plans later.

_Oops_

_When I said that I put the photos on his phone, I didn’t have them displayed_

_Small things you miss when you do homework and hack a phone_

What.

_He should be viewing them now_

As he made his way towards his cabin, Ren paused as he checked his phone.

It had vibrated, indicating that a text had come in. There were only two people who would text him something at this hour, Sumire or Futaba. Since he had given up on the idea of saying anything to Futaba about teasing Sumire since it was a fight that he was going to lose, he happily turned his phone on.

Morgana wondered what had happened when Ren had stopped walking, so he turned around to face him.

He could see something reflected back through the lens of his glasses, but he really couldn’t tell what it was.

Then the light disappeared.

And reappeared.

Then disappeared.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Morgana asked, sitting in front of Ren as he looked up, the process of the light turning on and off repeating itself in the glasses.

It eventually stopped, as Ren slowly unlocked the phone, before pausing again.

Then he turned the phone off.

And turned it on.

A brief pause, the sound of the phone unlocking and another pause.

And he turned it off.

This process repeated itself a few more times, as Morgana wondered what could make him pause like that when a streak of red started to run from Ren’s nose, making its way down his lips and chin, dripping onto the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will say it now, I have no intention of getting smutty.  
> Do I have plenty of ideas that are smutty? Yes.  
> Do I have the courage to write it? No.  
> Will I someday? Maybe.


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey, we got a chapter now. Minimal if any progress on the lewd.

When she walked into the dining hall for breakfast, Sumire noticed how antsy Ren seemed to be whenever he saw her.

If she didn’t know what probably caused it, she would’ve been overjoyed at seeing him break his composure like this in front of her, averting eye contact, face flushed at the smallest of touches, as if he was struggling to control himself.

It sent shivers down her spine seeing him so unnerved, wondering just how much damage he had taken from seeing the images that Futaba had sent him and wondered how long it would take for him to recover.

It didn’t affect his cooking, which she was certainly grateful for, though there was a noticeable drop in the usage of certain ingredients. What they were, Sumire didn’t notice, but listening to some of the other girl’s talk made it evident that they were paying attention to what he was making.

Ren eventually regained his composure around her, and by the time that the camp was going to finish, he had returned to his usual self, teasing her at the counter with hand touches when she got her meals when other girls were behind her. It didn’t help that they also noticed his bashful behavior around her, so they naturally wondered if something had happened.

As much as she tried to deny that anything had happened, a part of her wondered if she could really do so.

Futaba’s nightly texts keenly reminded her of that, even sending her a teaser of what she had done.

As the cars pulled into the parking lot of the station, Hiraguchi watched with a knowing smile on her face at Sumire, who was looking at Ren as he unloaded everyone’s bags from the back of the car, waiting for him as she stood next to her.

She watched as Sumire went up to Ren after the last girl got her bag, leaning into him as he reciprocated, hugging Sumire and whispering something into her ear. Hiraguchi couldn’t hear it, but the fact that Sumire seemingly scurried away after getting a kiss and being released from his grasp, a smirk to cross the coach’s face.

“Not going to return the kiss?” Hiraguchi asked when Sumire came to her side, watching as the cars drive away, a blush still on Sumire’s face when she came to her side.

“No, nothing like that,” Sumire responded quietly, aware that the rest of the girls were now looking at her, hoping for an answer.

“Is that so.”

It came off as disappointed, but the look in Hiraguchi’s eyes was anything but, as if she seemed to know what caused Sumire’s blushed response from when Ren leaned in.

When she was asked about it, she denied her coach’s suggestion the entire train ride back to Tokyo.

With a sigh of relief as she walked back towards her apartment, Sumire entered the room quietly, a gentle ‘I’m back’ announcing her return.

Her voice seemed to echo around the apartment, something she should’ve expected with the timing of her return but was still somewhat strange to her to not hear anything back.

Still, she brushed away the feeling of loneliness, making her way towards her room. Dropping her bag once she entered, she fell face-first onto her bed, the exhaustion from the three-week camp catching up to her.

While the physical part of her wasn’t that tired, her mind was completely drained. Being pestered by the other girls about her relation early on, getting pestered again when she had marks all over her during dinner the first break night. The images that Futaba had planted on her phone, and then the knowledge that Futaba had sent him something that made him break his composure just started to get to her.

Rolling over to her side, she got nervous when she saw her phone light up. Pausing at the glow, Sumire waited for it to stop glowing before she picked it up. When she turned it back over, it lit up with a text from her father, asking that she called him when she had the chance.

She called.

“Hello? This is Yoshizawa speaking,” her father answered.

“Dad, it’s Sumire.”

“Ah, Sumire. How was your camp?” he asked, hearing his smile through the phone.

“It was fine. It was nice being to see Ren every day,” she responded, a smile starting to form.

“Haha. Surely you have something to say other than that. Or do you want to praise him some more?”

“D-dad!!”

“Hahaha. Still, seeing that he’s the first thing you mentioned, I take it that camp was fine?” her father chuckled, making her pout.

“Yeah, it was fine…”

“Good. Ah, yes, I’ll be coming home late tonight, so I at least wanted to call and hear you.”

“Is that so…” The disappointment was clear in her voice.

“Sorry. Well, if you have nothing else to say, I…”

“Ah! Dad, can I ask you something?”

“Oh? You rarely interject like that. Is it about Amamiya-kun?” Her father had said it as a joke, but…

“U-um,” she paused, her face red from thinking about what she wanted to ask.

“C-c-can Ren, can he, …” She paused again, building her courage. “Can he spend the rest of summer break with us at home?” she finally asked, her voice cracking a bit as she finished.

There was a pause on the other end, as if her father was thinking, before he just chuckled a bit.

“If mom says it’s okay, I have no objections. Though I want him to go join me for a drink.”

“Thank you!” Sumire didn’t realize it, but she had shouted, surprising even herself.

“Ah, I’m sorry for shouting,” she answered softly, but her father just laughed.

“Well, how soon is he going to come? I’m sure he has to talk with his parents about it.”

Sumire had a bitter smile, shaking her head at the thought of what Ren had said about his family life.

“I’ll ask him about it, but it should be soon.”

“I see, I see. Well, I’ll look forward to hearing when he should arrive. Don’t forget to ask mom first.”

Sitting in her bed, Sumire smiled bitterly as she remembered what Ren had said about his home life once he got back.

As much as she wanted to tell her father that Ren hadn’t spoken to his parents since he graduated from high school, she didn’t out of her respect for him.

The lack of communication was not out of animosity between them, Sumire could tell how much he had wanted to talk with them when he talked about it with her. It was the fact that they were ostracized from the community in the year that he spent with them, and keeping his distance seemed to ease things up for them.

Shaking her head at such thoughts, Sumire sent a text to her mother, hoping for the same positive response she got from her father.

Standing near the Hachiko statue, Sumire looked antsy as she waited. It had only been two days since she had come back from camp, but the fact that he was coming this soon had made her equal parts excited and nervous.

Excited that she would be able to spend more time with him, but nervous as she thought about the sleeping arrangement. Even if they had spent a few nights together, those were all one-night affairs, nothing more. Having him sleep with her in the same room for two weeks was a bit, …

“Sumi~~,” pulled to her senses by the familiar voice that entered her ears, shivers ran down her spine as felt how close the person had gotten to her.

Leaning back, Sumire smiled as she felt his firm chest, his black hair and grey eyes looking down at her.

“Ready to go?” she asked, moving away and turning to face him.

“Can we go by one detour first?”

As she played a game on her computer, the sound of a notification, one set for when her friends had entered Yongenjaya, pulled Futaba away, the C@lorie Mate between her lips twitching before being pulled into her mouth by her tongue.

The notification said that Ren and Sumire had entered her range, and it seemed like they were headed for Leblanc.

Even if she knew that Ren was coming to Tokyo, Futaba wondered what prompted the two of them to come by.

Disconnecting from the game, the ban would be easy enough to bypass, Futaba switched to her bugged line that was in Leblanc.

It was quiet, no sounds of customers with the sound of Sojiro seemingly pacing between the curry and the coffee shelf, when the sound of a bell rang, announcing that someone had entered the store, as a ‘Hello’ and ‘Pardon me’ followed.

Even though she couldn’t see, she could imagine the grin that was on Sojiro’s face when he would recognize the voices, as ‘Hey kid, little miss,’ came through her headset.

The sound of a bag being lowered and its zipper opening, followed with a familiar ‘Hah,’ gave her a basic idea of what they had come to do.

Having lost interest, Futaba turned off the bugged line and started to undo her banning, logging right back in, thinking nothing important would come of the conversation.

She would later, in hindsight, wish to have heard the full conversation, as it led to her room losing power for the rest of the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be a slight pause in writing this while I work on getting something beyond a sentence a day on the lewd.  
> Once I've made satisfactory progress, this will carry back on.  
> And the cycle will repeat, much like Ren staring at Sumi nudes, till I'm ready to upload the lewd.


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lewd is coming along just fine. It's become my longest, single chapter work ever, though.

As the two sat in Leblanc, Sojiro watched in earnest as Ren and Sumire sat by the counter. It had been a while since he had seen Ren in person, New Years was it, and he was happy with the sight in front of him.

Watching the two of them drink coffee, Sojiro let a smirk cross his face as he saw Ren enjoy the cup before him, leaning over the counter.

“Still a tea man after that?” he asked, watching as Ren gave the dark liquid a small swirl, as if to contemplate a response.

“Oh, it doesn’t change anything. Just because one store does sweet mochi better doesn’t mean you stop liking daifuku,” Ren countered after a brief pause, making a laugh escape from the barista’s lips, shaking his head as he turned his attention to Ren’s side, where Sumire was slowly drinking her coffee.

He smiled when she noticed him looking at her, waving his hand to say that it was nothing, turning his attention back to Ren.

“Still, from the luggage you got there, it looks like you’re going to spend some time with the miss. Sleeping on the couch?” Sojiro asked, knowing the two different responses that he would get.

“Nope, just a long two weeks of sleeping side by side,” Ren responded with confidence, leaning into Sumire and put an arm around her waist, to which Sumire’s face blew up to a fierce shade of red, as Sojiro laughed.

“Well, you two lovebirds be sure not to wake her parents; don’t want to have to leave too early.”

Sumire stayed red as expected, but Sojiro wondered for a brief moment if he saw a flash of red run across Ren’s face.

But seeing how he didn’t respond, Sojiro just shook his head, looking at the cat who was sitting there, watching him as if he were expecting something of him.

“That cat’s looking at me like he wants something,” Sojiro said, as Morgana stayed quiet, choosing to keep staring at the man.

Turning to look at the feline, Ren stared at Morgana till he looked back, his blue eyes hardening.

“Make sure he knows that if he gets sushi, that I want actual tuna, not tuna tartar with green onion in it.”

Laughing at the request, Sojiro just looked, waiting for an answer as Ren chuckled.

“He wants proper tuna sushi instead of _negitoro_.”

Sojiro laughed at that.

“He can have the fish he wants if he can work like you did.”

Ignoring the cries of protest that Morgana started to give, saying that it was unfair to give him human standards, Sumire smiled as she watched the men interact. Perhaps it was something about a return to when Ren still lived in the attic, but it made her smile. It made her think about father in son joking with the youngest.

As she thought about the dynamic, something came to her mind.

She poked Ren’s shoulder.

“Didn’t you have a thing you wanted to ask Sakura-san about?” she asked, as they turned to look at her.

“Hm? You need more dating tips, kid? Sorry, but you’ll have to work to get some more,” Sojiro said, standing up straight as he looked at Ren.

“No, nothing like that. Sumire’s father wants to have a drink with me, so I wondered if you were interested in joining us. I’d have to ask him first but,” Ren asked, as a confused look ran on Sojiro’s face.

There was a pause as Sojiro looked at Ren, before shaking his head.

“Right, you’re twenty now. I still think of you like some kid just looking for trouble sometimes,” he chuckled, looking up as if to see if he had an open day.

As they stood in front of the door of her apartment, Sumire held Ren’s hand. She had already put her key in the lock and was looking at her boyfriend, who appeared to be preparing himself.

Giving his hand a gentle squeeze, Sumire saw him smile when he turned to look at her, pressing foreheads and rubbing noses.

“Ready?” she asked, grinning as they backed up.

A Joker grin met her.

“Ready.”

Twisting the key to open the lock, Sumire and Ren entered the apartment, a simple ‘I’m home’ and ‘Pardon me’ being the only voices that rang out.

Looking around, Sumire gave Ren a weak smile, expecting that the apartment would be quiet.

“Well, let’s go to my room.”

Walking down the hallway between the entrance and the rest of the rooms, Sumire made sure that Ren remembered where everything was and guided him towards her room.

Setting his bag down, Ren took the chance to look around Sumire’s room. Everything was as he remembered, his eyes making their way towards her bed, where his first thought was about the first make-out session they had on it.

Smiling at the memory, he gave Sumire’s hand a gentle tug, a playful smirk on his face when she turned to face him.

“Want to pick up where we left off from camp?” he asked, pointing at her bed. When she saw what he was pointing at, Sumire blushed, glancing from side to side with a frantic look. Ren smiled as he saw her frantic behavior.

However, Sumire’s eyes moved to her desk, where her laptop sat.

“Uh, we can continue.”

Ren’s eyes widened at that, wondering where she was coming from with that.

Taking her laptop and opening it, Sumire turned away, fearing that something would happen to her screen, but after a few seconds of nothing, she opened them and saw that nothing had changed.

“D-do you want me to continue reading?”

With a look of surprise on his face, Ren stared at Sumire for a brief moment, before an approving smile crossed his face.

“Why not?” he said, taking a seat on Sumire’s bed. “Go ahead.”

Getting the go-ahead, Sumire opened the file, looking for the place she left off from, when the red line from last time showed up.

Seeing if there was anything at the end of the lines, she sighed in relief when there was nothing, shaking her head when Ren turned to look at her, eyes asking what it was.

She looked for the next entry.

  * _June 3 rd, 20XX_



_Something amazing happened today._

_In the time between working through Palaces and doing requests from the website, I’ve naturally spent time hanging out with everyone, including people who aren’t Phantom Thieves. Like the doctor, the guy from the gun shop. Along with the councilor._

_I met him a few times; the snacks were okay. Definitely better than cheap wagashi._

_I didn’t think that I needed to record it all, but I’ll start recording key moments from now on._

_Why?_

_Because Ryuji’s Persona evolved. Like I maxed out friendship on a P@kémon and it leveled up._

_When Kamoshida’s palace was collapsing and we had to run for it, tripped and fell. As he’s here with us, I didn’t worry too much about it._

_He started to practice on his own. Well, with me, but some of the other track kids saw him and moved him out of the practice area he chose in school. That wasn’t too much of an issue; he took me to a gym to practice when one of his seniors came by and said something about one of Kamoshida’s lackeys was planning on picking up the track team._

_Ryuji was unable to accept that, so he tried to figure out the guy’s drink schedule, and he did. He can really do these things if he wants to._

_After figuring out the guy’s plans and telling the track team, he got the shit beaten out of him for ruining track._

_He asked for it. I just watched._

_Anyway, after that, we had some ramen together like our first hangout, and that’s when I saw the change. Ryuji’s Persona changed from a pirate riding a boat, to a monkey on a cloud._

_I get what it’s supposed to be, but there were way too many piercings on that monkey._

_After seeing what I saw, I managed to convince him to enter Mementos and test out the new Persona._

_And it really did change._

_It wasn’t some sort of different Persona like I wield; his Persona had changed and it had gotten stronger._

_I’ll be spending a bit more time with Ann from now on._

_We’re gonna want this power._

Turning to face Ren, Sumire had a near look of disappointment on her face.

Seemingly unfazed by it, Ren just shrugged, laying down across her bed.

With a pout, Sumire turned back to her laptop, seemingly disappointed that her attempt to make Ren fret had failed, when someone’s voice called out.

“Sumire! Amamiya-kun! I’m home!”


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.  
> I finished the lewd.  
> Notice of that update was deleted and replaced with this chapter.  
> Link to lewd is in the notes at the end.  
> Again, sorry for taking up space in your email.

Walking out of Sumire’s room, the two of them made their way towards the entrance of the apartment, where they were met by Sumire’s father, Shinichi.

He had finished taking off his shoes, with them neatly placed towards the center, a hearty smile on his face when he saw the two of them come out to greet him.

“Welcome back, dad,” Sumire said softly, as Ren stood behind her, nodding before he said, “Pardon me for staying.”

Shinichi smiled, reaching a hand out and gesturing to Ren to come closer.

“Now, now. Don’t say something like that. You’re welcome here at any time. Not to mention you’ll be staying with us for quite a while,” he said, giving a quick glance to Sumire, which made her blush and look away.

Not missing the small smirk on Ren’s face upon seeing her response, Shinchi quickly changed the subject.

“Ah, yes, Amamiya-kun,” he started, drawing attention away from his daughter.

“I know it’s rather soon, but my schedule will be open for us to go drinking in two days. Is there a particular place that you’d want to go to?”

Pausing at the invitation, Ren looked down, then side to side, as if he were trying to figure out what store they could go to.

“Can I look into it first?” he asked, hesitating a bit towards the end of the sentence, to which Shinichi laughed.

“Well, I suppose you thought it would happen later into you stay,” he chuckled, adjusting the red glasses he wore.

“I’ll let you know by dinner,” Ren said with confidence, to which Shinichi laughed.

“Well, so long as it’s not too expensive, the night’s going to be on me, so find a good place for us.”

With that, he walked past them, a smile on his face as he went to the kitchen, looking to see if there was a pitcher of barley tea in the fridge.

Sitting in a chair in the dining room, Ren smiled as he looked at Sumire, watching her tied up hair swing from side to side as she moved, pulling different things out, be ingredients or utensils, for making dinner.

Shinichi had already left, saying that he was going to rest a bit in his room so that the two of them didn’t need to worry about their behavior towards each other, something that Sumire was more grateful for, as she didn't want to show her father how easily she got embarrassed and folded under Ren’s influence.

Still, it was a welcome chance to be a bit more intimate, and his need to find a place to drink was keeping him from acting on it.

Ren pulled his phone out and sent a quick text.

Hey

I got the date

Two days from now

_Is that so_

_Did you ask about me?_

Not yet

Wanted to make sure you could come first

Sounds like you can

_Yeah_

_So what are you texting me for_

Is there a place you recommend?

_Well_

_Since it’s for a lightweight like you_

_There’s an izakaya that should be fine_

_I’ll send you the details_

After a few seconds, a store popped up, whose address pulled Ren’s attention.

_This should be fine_

It is

I’ll ask during dinner tonight

Putting his phone down, he got up and put on the apron that Sumire had set aside for him.

The apron itself was simple, with no pockets or anything on it, but it had a small red heart on the top left corner where the fabric stopped, where Sumire had embordered his name in purple on it.

She was worried when she had presented it to him on Christmas, saying that she wanted to keep it so that he something for when he visited, and apologized that she didn’t have anything to give that he could take with him.

The feelings of worry, however, were quickly swept away by the kiss she got on the forehead, with embarrassment and panic becoming the primary emotions she felt at that moment, turning to see how her parents would respond.

They had never gotten intimate like that in front of her parents, and Sumire was worried about what they were thinking.

Her father only had a gentle smile, seemingly nodding in approval at the act while her mother had covered her mouth with her hand, but Sumire could still see the smile in her swollen eyes, slightly irritated because of cat fur.

Feeling him slide in next to her, she smiled and handed him some eggs.

Knowing what she was making, Ren nodded as he took them, breaking them open and started to whisk them together.

Ren didn’t exactly remember what had started it, perhaps it was a picture Futaba had sent him when he was on a date with Sumire and she had seen it, or she was the one who got the text and showed it to him in a panic, saying that she’d never done such a thing, but all that he remembered was a picture of her dressed as a maid, winking as she held a plate of _omurice_ that had ‘I love Ren-sama,’ written on it in ketchup.

The _omurice_ itself looked like it was sloppily made, with the ketchup writing messy as well, but that was far from the point.

Knowing Futaba, the ketchup that ended up on Sumire’s glasses and cheek seemed like it was the point of the picture, as it looked a bit paler than regular ketchup.

Ren smacked himself internally, perhaps not wholly recovered from the images that Futaba had sent him from camp, as he put the bowl he was mixing eggs in to the side.

“Anything else you need me to do?” he asked, as he watched Sumire start to mix some tomato paste into rice, as some chicken sizzled in a pan.

“Ah! Could you watch the chicken and add the vegetables in?” she asked, moving to the side to give him more room in front of the stovetop.

Nodding in confirmation, he stepped to the side, watching as Sumire started to add some pepper to the rice, before realizing that she didn’t give him enough eggs to whip up, adding the rest her self as she started to beat them together.

Smiling at the rare air-head moment that Sumire had, he kept his eyes on the chicken, adding some onion, green and red peppers to the pan, smiling at the sound of them hissing as they released their moisture and were slowly absorbing the flavor of the chicken.

As he watched and occasionally stirred, he felt something pressing against his back, feeling a slight jerking motion as the sound of eggs getting beaten in a bowl also rang from behind.

“What are you doing?” he asked, straightening up a bid as he kept his eyes on the pan.

“Leaning for support,” came Sumire’s answer, the eggs getting mixed together.

“Is that so?” Ren asked, quietly adjusting his posture so that he could spring around at any moment.

Then he felt Sumire change her posture as well.

So she fell for it.

It was not the first time that the two of them had been like this in the kitchen.

Sumire would usually try to find an excuse to get physically close to Ren, but since she was limited in the ways that she could do so out of a mutual respect for safety, her options were limited.

As such, things like pressing her back against his when he was doing something simple like watching a pan was one of the few chances she had to get close.

But because of that, the things that she, in turn, could do were limited as well.

Ren had taken full advantage of that many times, with things like scooping a bowl out of her hands and kissing her, spinning her around gently and pressing his forehead against hers, being two of his favorite examples.

This time though, he chose not to act on them, keeping his posture ridged as he started to feel Sumire shake, unsure of what was going on.

When he felt that he had it going for long enough, Ren eased up, simply saying that it was ready for the rice and walked away from the stove.

Turning to face her, Sumire had a light blush when she realized what he had done, and quickly set the bowl down, shifting her attention to the pan as she started to add the rice.

As they sat down for dinner, Ren started to fidget a bit as he realized what he was doing.

Shinichi, his girlfriend’s father, had invited him out for a drink, and he was wondering if he could request that an additional person join them.

It wasn’t that he had intended for it to be rude, but it was perhaps on the rudest things he could’ve said.

Shaking a bit as he tried to figure out what he was going to do, he felt something reach for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, with a look asking, ‘What’s wrong?’

As he looked across the table, where her parents were sitting, Ren couldn’t help but look back, silently reaching for his phone as he sent her a text.

Explaining what he had realized, Sumire just looked at him, before giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

_I’ll catch you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, lewd:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/24809011  
> Second, I'm considering making a combat-centric fic that focuses on all the boss fights in the game as I think they would work with the rules that I've set up in this story. I might start it, I might not, but I'll just let you know that it's an idea in my head.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after considering it, accidentally posting a place holder, deleting the placeholder and replacing it with a different one, I started working on a boss battle only series that works with the rules that are loosely set up in this fic, which will be solidified in that one.  
> It's pacing is going to revolve around this one, as I want to upload boss battle chapters after their confession in Ren's entries or some other scene for the last two bosses.  
> So with that announcement, please look forward to the first fight in 'Battles forgotten.'  
> So maybe like a week pause on this as I work on Kamoshida's fight and Madarame's fight.

As they sat there in silence, Ren started to feel the stares of Sumire’s parents, as he paused.

He had asked for Shinichi’s attention, but now that their eyes were on him, he was unsure if he was able to carry on.

“Um,” he started, looking to his side when he felt Sumire give his hand a gentle squeeze, with an even softer smile on her face.

“Before mentioning the store, I have one thing I want to say,” Ren continued, returning the squeeze as he looked at Shinichi.

“I know that this is rude of me to say this, but there’s a person that I want to invite as well.”

Lowering his head as he said that, Ren kept his head down for a few seconds, before looking back up, Shinichi’s face seemingly unmoving.

Slightly panicking, he calmed down a bit when he felt Sumire place a second hand atop of his, calming him down.

“If you don’t mind, I want to invite the person who looked after me during my year in Tokyo to come as well.”

“Why would that be?”

Ren tightened up again.

Sumire pressed down on one hand and squeezed with the other.

Looking at Shinichi in the eye, Ren continued.

“I’ve never been out for a drink before, and as much I should trust you, I still don’t.”

Lowering his head again, Ren, and Sumire, who had her attention on Ren, missed how nervous Shinichi was getting, with Ren suddenly lowering his head and saying that he was being rude. He didn’t know what he was to say.

Looking over to his wife, who just had a small smile on her face, didn’t give him any answers, so she decided that she would take control of the conversation.

“Who is the person that looked after you,” she started, drawing the two kids’ attention to her, a look of surprise on Sumire’s face.

“Ah, Sakura Sojiro. He owns a small café in Yongenjaya, where I stayed in the attic above,” Ren answered after a slight pause, realizing that the person he had to please had shifted.

“Oh, now why would he do that?” she asked, as a look of pleading came from Sumire, suddenly unsure if this was the direction that she wanted the conversation to go in.

Ren, however, answered without missing a beat.

“His daughter was depressed, and he didn’t know how she would react to an outsider. She had been locking herself away for two years at that point, and he didn’t want to upset her.”

The silence seemed to linger over the table, as Sumire and Shinichi were seemingly unsure of what they were supposed to do.

“Ayako,” Shinichi eventually said, drawing her attention, her small smile suddenly widening.

“Well, I don’t see why it’s an issue,” drawing looks of surprise from her family.

“He’s Futaba-chan’s father, right?” she asked, as Ren slowly nodded, unsure of where she got that information.

“You know Futaba?” Sumire asked, suddenly afraid of what sort connection the two would have.

“Why, yes I do. I met her when she had dropped by one day with a gift for you,” she said while looking at Sumire, with a feeling of dread building in her and Ren. “And since you weren’t home, she gave it to me,” Ayako said, as both Ren’s and Sumire’s faces started to pale.

“I gave it to you, but you never said anything about it. And since I never found anything in the trash, I searched through your clothes. And I will say, she had some nice tastes.”

The color returned to Sumire’s face with a vengeance, a bright crimson red taking over as Ren’s only slightly grew red, as Shinichi’s face panicked.

“Ayako!”

“What? He’s going to marry our girl eventually, he should get to know his mother-in-law a bit,” she said, which added some red to Ren’s face.

Seemingly struggling to find a proper answer, Shinichi just sighed.

“It’ll be fine, then. You can let him know.”

With a sigh of relief from Ren and Sumire, they quickly got up, taking their plates to the kitchen, with an ‘I’ll do it,’ from Ayako making them scatter, hurrying to Sumire’s room.

Closing the door behind them, the just looked at each other for a few moments, before Sumire collapsed to the ground, her face taking up a less vibrant shade of red as she had at the table, but it was still pretty fierce.

Leaning over to pick her up, Ren dragged Sumire, there wasn’t enough room to pick her up properly, and put her on her bed, as she tried to compute exactly what had happened.

As he sat there, giving her the time needed to figure things out, he started to open his bag, getting his pajamas and toiletries out, along with a small cup to put his toothbrush and paste in and stood by the door.

He stood there for what was maybe five minutes before Sumire started to move, getting up and hugging Ren, as if she were trying to calm herself in his presence.

She held on for a minute before looking up, her glasses and eyes the only things visible to Ren as he looked back down.

“Want to talk after brushing our teeth?”

With his back against the door, Ren leaned against it as he had his toothbrush in one hand and his mouth, while his cup and toothpaste was held in the other, as Sumire stood in front of the sink, always pausing and taking quick peaks at him to make sure that he was still pressing against the door.

He always grinned at her when she looked at him, setting her at ease as she turned back around.

Leaning away from the door, he turned to face it, walking backwards slowly until he felt Sumire press a hand to his back, making him turn around pause, watching as she walked towards the door.

Unable to exert as much force as Ren could, she chose to sit on the floor against the door, increasing the ‘density’ at the bottom and hindering it from opening.

Smiling once she had settled in, Ren ran some water over his brush and let it flow into his cup, rinsing it out once before he filled partially. Stopping the water, he lifted his cup, letting the water slosh around in his mouth before leaning over to spit it out.

Getting up and giving her a thumbs up, Ren placed his toothbrush and paste into the cup and put it next to Sumire’s.

Smiling as she saw the proximity between them, even if it was only cups, Sumire waited for Ren to get close before they opened the door, sighing once they realized that the coast was clear.

As the two of them sat on her bed, Sumire looked at Ren with tired eyes, taking her glasses off as she indicated that she wanted to sleep, moving some of her covers so that she could slide underneath.

Smiling, Ren slid took her glasses and placed them on her desk, taking his off as well before turning to look at Sumire, who lifted part of the covers to make room for him to get in.

With his smile growing wider, Ren went and turned off the lights before he took the invitation, letting the covers come down as he pressed his forehead against hers, eyes adjusting to the dark.

“Is she always like that?” he asked softly, rubbing his nose against hers.

“No, I think that’s her ‘there’s romance in front of me’ personality. She ends up like that if she watches some of the TV dramas that are romance oriented.”

“Is that so?”

“Mhm.”

They let the silence linger over them for a few minutes, before Ren moved, wrapping his arms around Sumire to pull her in closer, a move which she quickly reciprocated.

Being pulled in made her head below Ren’s, but that was quickly changed with her sliding herself up, loosening her grip on Ren as he did the same, before she could press her forehead against his again.

They sat there in silence for a few moments, letting their lips get closer when the door opened.

“Hey, hey. Amamiya-kun! You left something near the sink!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, uh. If you read the lewd, I guess Sumire's mom has a knack for this.  
> Also, her name, Ayako, means child of faith, so take that how you want.


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, my battle fic, Battles Forgotten, is up and running. Be sure to check it out if you want a Metaverse that's explained in detail that isn't present in this fic.  
> Also, Take a seat, my dear dancer, is now chapter 1 of Twilight Memories, a series of wholesome smut stories that aren't interconnected in any way, just where all the smut for Recollections is going to end up.

The following breakfast was a quiet in the Yoshizawa household, as Ren and Sumire, both habitual early risers, got dressed and headed out for the town.

They left a memo for Shinichi to find, who let out a sigh, wondering how his wife would take the news about why they left.

As they made their way towards the station, Sumire fumbled a bit in her step, sleep still somewhat present in her body after leaving the house this early without eating. Even if it was just a rice cracker, she would’ve been up and about, her body aware that there was food to be had. Ren just smiled, reaching a hand out for her to hold, which she happily took.

Slowing down so he could keep pace with her, the made their way into the station, lining up to scan their passes through the gate and walked to the platform, letting her lean onto him as she closed her eyes, sleep threatening to take her.

At the moment, her eyes stayed closed for longer than ten seconds that the train arrived, making him gently nudge her, making her move as he pulled her along, feet on autopilot as she trusted Ren to guide her safely.

Pressed against the divider that separated seats from the door, Ren let Sumire fall asleep against him once more, her head resting against his chest as he stood between her and the rest of the car, watching as the gentle rocking motions coaxing her back to sleep.

This was perhaps the one thing about morning Sumire that Ren loved the most. The ‘I’m hungry and it’s early’ Sumi that he rarely got to see, as slow mornings were not common for them.

He stood like that for about ten minutes, one hand holding onto the metal bar that was close to the door while his other hand was on Sumire’s head, keeping it steady so that it wouldn’t smack into the wall or the metal pole he was holding on if there was a sudden bump.

As they neared their destination, Ren gave Sumire a gentle nudge, trying to wake her up, only to be met with a soft, ‘five more minutes.’ Unimpressed, he leaned over and gave her ear a small nibble, taking advantage of the fact that his back was facing most of the train and that people would think he was leaning over to whisper something in her ear.

After a few seconds, she started to react, moving her head away from his when she felt the resistance of his hand. Opening her eyes to see what was keeping her from moving, Sumire saw that Ren was standing straight, looking out the doors as their stop came into view.

Their pace was slow as they walked down the street, as Sumire was trying her best to keep her eyes open with the large crowd of people moving in the morning rush, not wanting to run into anyone even if Ren was guiding her.

“Almost there, just think about your favorite American bacon,” was all Ren needed to say, prompting a growl from her stomach.

Chuckling at the sound, he eventually stopped, waiting for Sumire to stand next to him before walking in, making her eyes open with the smell of breakfast.

“Welcome!” a waitress called to them, seeing them enter the store. “How many will it be this morning?” she asked, giving the two of them a quick glance before she seemingly froze, as Ren gave a gentle ‘two’ for an answer.

“Table for two?” she asked, as Ren nodded, looking to his side to make sure that Sumire was still awake.

“Right this way.”

Keeping her pace slow, the waitress looked behind her, making sure that they were following as she guided them towards a small table, placing the menus down as the pair got closer, pulling their chairs out and sitting down.

“I’ll be with you shortly for your drink order and some water,” the waitress said, before walking away at a brisk pace, her nerves finally showing as a light layer of sweat shined on the back of her neck.

The pair thought nothing of it, as Sumire’s eyes lazily glanced at the menu before looking at Ren.

“You know what I want,” she said sleepily, trying her best to keep her eyes open as Ren chuckled, looking down at the menu to see if anything new had been added since they had last come.

With nothing popping out for him, he just shrugged, Ren set his menu down, looking at Sumire as she was trying her best to keep her eyes open.

“Knowing Futaba, she probably left some entries on your phone,” he started, making her look at him questioningly.

“Do you want me to read some of them?”

There was a slight pause, before Sumire eventually nodded, looking for her phone and unlocking it.

Scrolling to where the files were, she handed Ren the phone, which he took, tapping on the first file, thinking that it was where they would’ve left off.

Only the sound of the restaurant could be heard as Sumire waited, wondering what was taking her boyfriend so long to start.

“I can see the hair of the original model. She was either slacking or rushing, probably both,” Ren said after a few seconds, jolting Sumire’s brain into overdrive when she realized what Ren meant when he had said that.

“Ah, give it,” she whined desperately, reaching across the table as Ren swiped to another picture, seemingly more amused than disappointed as he looked, trying to find the minute details that his girlfriend might have missed.

He gave it back to her when he saw the waitress come back, tray in hand as she placed the water on the table, a nervous look on her face as she took their drink order.

Ren had requested hot tea while Sumire asked for orange juice, the order quickly put in the electric pad before she asked if they had chosen their meals.

Walking away with a somewhat surprised look on her face, the waitress tried her best to calm herself as Sumire looked away from Ren, as he just gave her a smile.

“Do you still want me to read some?” he eventually asked when he saw her peeking at him.

She stayed quiet for a moment, before eventually nodding, handing him her phone with the file opened.

  * _June 5 th, 20XX_



_We’re in the clear._

_Madarame confessed._

_It was broadcast on television during a news report, and the Phantom Thieves were briefly mentioned, creating quite a bit of a hubbub online._

_Anything beyond that though seems out of our reach for the moment, but it’s still a step in the right direction._

_As we gathered in the walkway, we wondered what we should do from that point on, as if there was nothing more to do, when Yusuke brought up the mention of the black mask._

_Truth be told, most of the group thinks that it was something he said to move attention away from him, a last resort for some mercy, but Yusuke and I seem to be of a differing opinion from the group._

_Yusuke, for his part, knows Madarame well enough that he would’ve been able to tell if he was lying. As for me, something Igor had said in the Velvet Room after we beat Madarame’s Shadow also makes me think that he wasn’t lying either._

_Regardless, now that Madarame had been arrested, Yusuke said that he was going to go and prepare to move into the dorm at his school, using his scholarship to cover the cost of moving in._

_Seeing that the meeting was over, we split up, though I felt like someone was watching us._

_Ryuji and I went to Kinchoji afterwards to go play some darts, using a voucher he got in the mail advertising the opening of the shop. I feel like the eyes that watched us at the end of the meeting followed us to the store._

_Maybe I’m being paranoid._

_Regardless, after messing around with a few games of darts, Morgana had the idea that this could be a team activity, and that we could all get together and improve our Baton Passes._

_I have no idea how he came up with the idea, but if he says so, it probably works. He knows the Metaverse better than I do._


	21. Chapter 20

Looking up from the phone, Ren saw someone come their way, as the waitress came by, Ren’s tea and Sumire’s orange juice set on the table, with a, ‘please wait a moment for your meals’ leaving her mouth, making her way out.

Looking at Sumire slowly start to sip at her juice, Ren took a quick drink from his tea as well.

“I’ll continue reading,” Ren said once Sumire put her drink down.

  * _June 6 th, 20XX_



_Nothing really happened today. Just felt like writing._

_I will say though, I had a date._

_It was raining after school, so I walked Kasumi to the station. Good kitty for giving me an umbrella._

_She talked about how there was a qualifier coming up for her club, and how she wanted to take gymnastics to the world stage._

_I know nothing, so if she says so, I believe her._

_She also needs to stop apologizing for things she doesn’t do. Some first years were saying that she got her boyfriend to walk her to the station, how special she was._

_If anything, I was more surprised that they didn’t say anything about my record. Still, she apologized about being dragged into it and walked away after her dad called._

Sumire looked down, a soft ‘dad’ leaving her lips as Ren reached a hand out, giving hers a gentle squeeze.

“Do you want to keep going?”

She nodded.

Ren continued, keeping her hand in his.

  * _June 8 th, 20XX_



_My body hurts._

_For two reasons._

_First was that I had a ‘date’ with Kasumi._

_She needs to lower her standards for me; I still remember the pain I felt after the park._

_Barely keeping myself from throwing up, we sat on a bench, and she started to collect on her end of the deal._

_She talked about how something had changed, and her coach was now calling her out on it._

_Something about, ‘I need to find out who I really am,’ or something._

Ren felt his hand get squeezed, as Sumire kept her eyes down.

“It’ll probably be like this for a while.” Ren put the phone down and put his hand on top of hers.

“Would you rather read this at home?”

With a shake of her head, Sumire looked up, a small pool of tears in her eyes, but the resolve they showed could break rock.

“Keep going.”

_I don’t remember what I said in response, but she asked that we continue these get-togethers and that she was looking forward to our next date._

_I tried my luck and asked if she meant romantically, especially since she said date._

_She just laughed, saying that maybe I could start with treating her to an extra-large beef bowl with a raw egg on top with pork soup and a salad on the side. I looked at her as if to say if that was all it took, but then she laughed it off, saying that she would never with her current diet._

“You could totally eat that now.”

A light kick under the table.

"Moving on."

_The second reason my body hurts is that the twins decided to come out into the real world._

_Aside from hurting my head about how they can do that, they said that they wanted to go to a burger shop._

_They claimed that it was so that they could see the outside world and think about ways to improve my ‘rehabilitation.’_

_It’s not like they’ve really done much. But now that I’m writing it down, I have some more questions. I'll ponder on it later._

_Regardless, they seemed to want to go to Big Bang Burger because of the name._

_When they saw the first burger, they were unimpressed, so I told them that it was the one meant for normal people._

_I may have made a mistake in saying that, because they made such a racket looking like children that they gave me the largest burger in their challenge to calm them down._

_After I ate it with some support, they asked me why I would do something like that._

_I wanted to say because they made a scene, but Caroline was patting her shoulder with her baton, so I said something else._

_I don’t remember how they took the answer, but they tried to take on the challenge on their own._

_They didn’t get it, but Caroline seemed pretty happy with the toy that came with the kid’s meal they got._

_And they thought pickles were eggs from outer space._

_I wonder if I can survive more of these excursions._

_I might go throw up now._

“Were you okay?”

Sumire had a look of worry, as Ren just gave her a small smile, a solid “No” being the only answer she got.

He looked back down and Sumire let it go, figuring that his answer said everything he wanted to.

  * _June 9 th, 20XX_



_Something strange happened._

_I don’t think anyone else really caught it, but we may have encountered someone else who’s accessed the metaverse._

_After Ryuji and I fought our way through cables and Ann avoided getting scouted by someone during our social studies trip to the tv studio, we met up in a hallway at the end of the day’s activities. After complaining about a few things, Morgana said something about pancakes, and Suidobashi Dome Town came up._

_We had moved on by that point to the rides there when someone came by and asked what we were talking about._

_After asking what he was talking about, he said that he thought someone had mentioned ‘delicious pancakes.’_

_Ann said his name like she knew it, but until we can get more information, I’ll sleep on this._

Sumire looked at Ren, knowing how he felt about Akechi.

“So that was the moment?” she asked, looking at him.

“Yeah,” Ren said, a mixture of hatred and pity in his voice.

He looked back down.

  * _June 10 th, 20XX_



_For the final day of our trip, we …_

“Oh, I wondered why the staff was nervous,” a voice called, making Ren stop and look up, which Sumire followed as well.

“Hello you two,” a cheerful ‘manager’ said, a face with fluffy brown hair that curled at the end greeted them.

“It’s been a while.”

“Ah, Haru-san!” Sumire said, making said girl laugh, her hair swinging at shoulder length.

“Now now, how many times will I have to tell you to stop adding honorifics,” she giggled, leaning over for a hug that was returned, smiling at the sudden appearance of a friend.

“Sorry, it’s just …”

“No, I won’t take an apology. I want you to call me Haru.”

Letting go of the hug, Haru focused her gaze on Sumire, slowly making her uncomfortable as she started to feel what the rest of the Thieves had called ‘Void of Noir.’

It carried on for a few seconds, before she eventually stuttered out, “H-Haru.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” she giggled, turning her attention to Ren, hugging him as she made her way towards his seat.

“It’s been a while,” Ren said as he broke the hug, with Haru making way for the first of Sumire’s entrees to be set on the table.

“Mind if we chat?” Haru asked, sliding closer to Sumire as she looked down hungrily at the skillet before her, with others being placed with Haru giving the server a warm smile and thanks.

“Can you chat?” Ren asked, looking at his plate of an egg sandwich and bacon that was set before him, sliding the bacon onto Sumire’s skillet as she looked at Haru.

“Oh, it should be fine,” she giggled, sliding next to Sumire and gave her the go ahead, bacon immediately disappearing from the plate.

“Not like they can tell me to not talk with a friend in my store,” a certain sparkle in her eye that told Ren that she wasn’t negotiating on this.

Shaking his head, he started to eat his sandwich, careful as to not let some of the yolk spill onto his lap.

“Where’s Mona-chan?” Haru asked after Ren had finished half of his sandwich while Sumire had started her second skillet, looking for a bag that she assumed that the cat would be in.

“He’s with Futaba right now,” Ren said, a look of disappointment on Haru’s face upon hearing that.

“Is that so,” she asked, wondering what prompted such a scenario.

“We found out recently that my mom is allergic to cats, so he’s not with us right now,” Sumire said, as a look of understanding came across the heiress’s face, nodding as Sumire went back to her meal, now making her way into her third skillet.

“We should probably stop by and get some of his fur though, see if we can use it to keep your mom out,” Ren said, as Sumire stopped mid-bite, wondering what Ren had said.

“Oh, did she …”

Haru was about to ask, but Sumire finally realized what Ren had implied, blushing fiercely and crossing her arms, as if to say nothing happened.

“It was just a kiss in her room,” Ren chuckled, which made Haru give Sumire a nudge, a knowing smile on her face.

Sumire quickly at the third and final skillet, as Ren slowly drank his tea while Haru got Sumire a second cup of orange juice to wash down her meal, hoping to be done with the conversation and move on.

Making their way to the register, Ren reached for his wallet, but Haru just smiled, one that Ren knew better than to challenge, and walked out, with Sumire still muttering how they still haven’t gone that far yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh sorry in advance for another pause as I start to work on the Madareme boss fight. Once that one is done, we'll be right back to our regularly scheduled fluff.


	22. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Battles Forgotten, Madarame fight is done.  
> Please take a look at it.

The apartment was quiet when they walked in, her parents gone for work as they slid their way in, still careful not to make any noise.

As the pair made their way towards Sumire’s room, there was a small creek on the floor, making them pause and look at each other.

After a few seconds of waiting, the two of them carried on, their steps taken much more carefully as they eventually made it to the door.

Making his way to the front, Ren slowly started to open it, letting Sumire slide in between him as he kept his eyes back, making sure that nothing had spotted them.

Once he felt a squeeze on his arm, he slid into the room, carefully closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Relaxing once the door was closed, Ren turned to see Sumire face down, her glasses in hand, as she sighed, turning to face him when he got close to the bed.

“Did we have to practice that?” she asked quietly, sliding her glasses back on as she sat up, making room for Ren to sit down.

“Would you rather not?” he answered, leaning into her and putting a hand on her head.

With a ‘hmph,’ Sumire leaned back and looked away, a chuckle leaving Ren’s lips as he lowered his hand, pulling her in from her shoulder.

They sat there for a few minutes, briefly glancing at each other for a few seconds, before Sumire got up, looking at the clock on the wall.

“I need to leave for practice,” she said, going into a corner and pulling her bag up, checking to make sure that she had everything that she needed.

“Am I invited?” Ren asked, getting up standing next to his bag, waiting for a response.

“I haven’t spoken to coach about it yet, so I don’t know. I’ll ask and we’ll see about tomorrow.”

“I see,” Ren said, moving away from his bag and leaning over Sumire.

“I’ll be waiting with lunch then,” he whispered in her ear, making her shiver as she turned around and tried to pinch his nose only to grab air.

Smirking as he made his way to the door, Sumire tried her best to ignore it, but she followed behind, bag over her shoulder as she made her way to the entrance.

“Anything in the fridge off limits?” Ren asked from the kitchen, making Sumire pause.

She thought about it for a while, wondering what she should say.

Surely, she could do something about his continued efforts to tease her.

“You and dad are going to drink, so don’t touch anything. I’ll make something for myself and mom.”

There, that should keep him busy.

As he watched his girlfriend walk out of the door, Ren thought about what he could do for lunch.

Given how he knew her appetite and if he had to make everything from scratch with no access to what was available, he started to think about what he could make.

At best, he had two hours to go out, buy ingredients, do prep work, make something, clean up and head out with however many boxes it would take to fit, and make his way to the gym that she would be walking out of to surprise her.

Leaving about five minutes after Sumire, Ren made his way towards the station, looking to see which building was the grocery store.

If he was honest, Ren was wondering if grocery shopping was always going to end up like this.

Back at camp, he could use the excuse that he was cooking for more than one person and he had a car to carry everything. But now that he was walking back, he could feel the slight pain in his wrists.

He was somewhat lucky on that trip, as he heard a ‘scuffle’ that happened when there was a timed sale on one of the floors he passed to get ingredients, and he wondered if he would ever have to go into one of those.

The likely answer was yes. If he was going to focus on supporting Sumire and her career as a gymnast, he would have to take the blows that would come his way from housewives jostling for whatever item would be on sale.

Not that she couldn’t take it, but housewives were a different type of monster compared to Shadows when there was a time sale. He couldn’t have her injuring herself trying to buy something before an important event.

Looking down at the bags in hand, Ren tightened his grip and kept walking, his mind already thinking about how to start prepping lunch.

About an hour had passed since he had come back shopping, and he had spent that time prepping, getting containers ready, spreading everything out for easy access and going over the recipes in his head over and over.

Once he had finished that, some water was starting to boil while he was busy cutting onion and bell pepper, some cherry tomatoes and sausage already cut and put to the side.

Checking to see how hot it was, Ren put in some Chinese noodles as he finished cutting the rest of the vegetables, pulling out some flour and put it in a small bowl, adding water and mixing it.

He hadn’t bought the flour, even making sure that there was some there before he left. But it technically wasn’t something in the fridge, so if Sumire said something about it, he could tell her that it wasn’t in the fridge.

A small smile on his face as he thought about the technicalities of the statement, he checked how firm the noodles were, before moving the pot over to the sink, draining the noodles and gave them a quick rinse. Running some water over them in a strainer as he prepped the pan for the next step.

Covering the bottom of the pan in a light layer of oil, Ren moved the now cooled noodles in, mixing it so that the oil was spread evenly before pouring the wheat water in. Shaping the noodles into a circle, he turned the heat on and covered it up, letting it sit and cook for a few minutes as he opened the bag of cheese and some ketchup packs.

Once he gave the noodles a quick stir and saw that it had browned a bit, he put it ketchup on top, followed by the pepper, sausage, onion and corn, then sprinkled the cheese on top, covering the pan a second time.

Starting a mental timer, a separate pot of water had been boiling for long enough, making him take it off the stovetop and put it in the sink. Before he could take it’s lid off, the microwave beeped, indicating that the frozen _edamame_ he put in there was done. Taking note of it, he turned it off, turning his attention back to the pot in the sink, lifting its lid off as he revealed the steamer beneath it, grinning at how the broccoli looked, and filled half of one container with it.

Seeing how everything was ready, he waited for the timer in his head to go off before removing the pan from the heat, opening and smiling at the result he got.

Satisfied with what he saw, he put half of the pan into one container, closing it up before he plated the rest for himself. Now that he was done with that, the last item was waiting for him.

Some rice had been left in the rice cooker from the _omurice_ last night and now that it was slightly stale, he took the _edamame_ out of the microwave and put them in triangular rice balls with some of the leftover corn. Checking how much oil was in the pan, Ren determined that it was enough, and put the rice balls in, laying them on their sides. They stayed like that for about five minutes before he flipped them over, a satisfactory brown skin on as he repeated the process for all sides, taking only a minute on the thin parts.

Putting the rice balls into the other half of the first container, Ren stacked them up, wrapping them up with a red cloth as he slid some snacks in that he knew Sumire liked.

Satisfied that her lunch was complete, Ren took a seat and started to eat, head nodding in satisfaction as he relaxed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't scream at me, but the noodle recipe I described is Japanese in the same way that pizza is American. Just letting you know.  
> Link to Madarame fight:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/24882631/chapters/60741037


	23. Chapter 22

Walking out of the elevator, Sumire stretched her shoulders, reaching her arms up as she left.

Practice was brutal, given that she had asked Hiraguichi for a favor again and was tested on how badly she wanted it.

However, Sumire figured that she had pushed her luck a bit too far and conceded on the fact in the locker room.

Adjusting her glasses for when she bumped them with a hand on the way down, she walked into the lobby to see Ren waiting for her, flipping through some pamphlets as he carried something under his arm.

“Ren?” she asked, picking her pace up when she spotted him, making him turn around and face her with a smile.

Putting the pamphlet away, Ren made his way forward, the item under his arm now obviously a _bento_ box that was wrapped in cloth, making his way over.

“Surprise,” he said softly, passing the box over to Sumire as she took it, somewhat confused about what he was doing.

“I can’t eat this here,” she said, the small smile on Ren’s face disappearing.

“You can’t?”

“Nope. They have a cafeteria here, but you have to buy.”

Ren stayed quiet for a moment before chuckling, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked off to the distance, ‘oops’ quietly leaving his lips.

“Still, thank you for this,” Sumire said, giving him a hug which he happily returned.

“Should we go home?” Ren asked after he backed out, a giggle and a nod from Sumire as she walked with the box in hand.

“So, my plan to watch my beautiful girlfriend is a no go,” Ren said, making Sumire pause as she lowered her bowl of miso. A smug grin on his face as she slowly lifted her bowl back up, lowering her head a bit to hide her blush while she drank.

Ren had made the miso after they got back, a request Sumire made as she slowed her pace so she could have it when she was done with her lunch.

He smirked behind his bowl, lowering it once he had drunk everything.

“Well, guess I’ll have to find something do,” Ren started, scraping some of the seaweed that stuck to the side of his bowl as Sumire lowered hers, a questioning look in her eyes.

“I thought about it for a while, but I’m going to have to find a way to stay in shape myself,” he continued, sliding the pamphlet he was holding in the gym onto the table.

It was a pamphlet with information about the pool that was in the same building that Sumire would practice her routine now that Olympic qualification was being taken more seriously.

“I was thinking about maybe I should start doing something on my own, take the time when your practicing to learn how to swim for exercise.”

Glancing between the pamphlet and Ren, Sumire was rather hesitant, looking at Ren’s eyes to see what she could glean from it.

“I started to think a bit when practice came up in the journal, but I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with your practice. You said practice was rough today, didn’t you.”

A hesitant nod.

“Every time I come, I have to do something as well and with your practices getting harsher, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up.”

A pause.

“Yeah, I don’t think you could keep pace,” Sumire eventually said, scraping the seaweed out of her bowl.

Nodding, Ren grabbed her bowl, making his way to the kitchen as he started to rinse them out.

A small smile was on his face as he washed, as if he acknowledged that he had reached a point where he couldn’t keep up.

“Since gymnastics and swimming are both full-body sports, I figured that I could do that and keep up my physical form. I can still keep up in one way.”

Feeling Sumire press against him, a grin crossed Ren’s face, as he thrust his hips back.

“Plus, you get to see me in my speedo glory.”

Scampering back, Sumire flailed her arms about as Ren shook his hips, as if teasing her with the prospect.

Ren stopped when his laughter made him bend over, unable to keep his posture as he put the bowls on the drying rack and turned to face Sumire.

“What do you think?”

She seemed to need a bit longer to calm down, eventually pouting and pounded lightly on his chest.

After a few seconds of pounding, Sumire eventually stopped and stepped back, looking at Ren as he waited for an answer.

“Do what you want,” she said, puffing her cheeks and looking the other way, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of saying yes.

With a simple thanks, Ren scurried off, ‘bathroom’ quietly leaving his lips as Sumire continued to look the other way.

Checking his phone, Ren glanced around as he stood in front of the station, information board behind him as he waited to see two people come out.

Sumire kicked him out after he came out of the bathroom, seemingly still flustered over the comments he made over him in a speedo, so he spent the time waiting by wandering about to his old hangouts.

Everyone he got to meet seemed to be in high spirits, talking with them gave him a boost of confidence as he waited for the agreed time.

Putting it away, he glanced around again when he spotted something approaching through the crowd, a white brim he hadn’t seen in a while.

“Heh, I haven’t dressed like this in a while,” Sojiro laughed as Ren waved him down, making his way towards the board.

“I think Futaba’s entrance ceremony was the last time,” Ren replied, making the café owner shake his head.

“You and your memory,” he chuckled, as he caught a glance of someone else moving in, turning to see who it was.

“Did I make you wait?” the man asked.

Shinichi walked up to the pair, first looking at Ren, who shook his head, before turning to face Sojiro.

“Yoshizawa Shinchi, a pleasure meeting you,” he said bowing.

“Sakura Sojiro, likewise,” Sojiro responded, bowing and reaching a hand out, shaking with a firm grip.

“Ah, that was rather firm,” Shinichi said, prompting a smirk from Sojiro.

“Oh, pardon me. Guess I’m somewhat hesitant to see him with someone else,” he chuckled, pulling his hand back as Shinichi laughed.

“Well, I suppose I would be the same with Sumire.”

Watching the two of them laugh, Ren just shook his head, standing there as he let the two of them talk a bit more.

“Should we go?” he asked after a few minutes, prompting the two fathers to turn their attention.

“Right sorry about that,” Sojiro chuckled, prompting the trio to move to their destination.

As they walked down the street, Ren noticed the number of people who seemed to be his age, chuckling as he thought of the neighborhood they were in. If he remembered correctly, Makoto’s school was nearby, but he didn’t think that she would have much of a nightlife. He tried to imagine it, her walking down the street with a group of girls, a short skirt with a frilly blouse.

Laughing at the image, he said it was nothing when he was asked about it, saying that he thought of something.

Walking in, the trio waited as someone came up to greet them.

“Welcome!”

Seeing that guests had entered the store, a waitress came up to greet them.

“How many will …”

She paused when she saw who was at the door.

“Ren?”

“Makoto?”


	24. Chapter 23

As they looked at each other, Makoto was the first to snap out of it, turning back and shouting ‘Table for three!’ into the store.

She was dressed in a jinbei kimono top, with an apron that went around her waist, covering what looked to be a hakama that one might wear in the fields as a white handkerchief covered her head.

A firm ‘Welcome!’ came back as she guided them into the store; shoes put into a locker as they walked on an elevated floor, sliding doors separating tables from the hall.

“I’d love to chat, but I have other tables to attend to,” she bowed, etiquette of the service industry visible in her movement as she kneeled on the floor.

“I will be back with some water and hot towels shortly. All of your orders can be done with the electronic pad, but if you need something like a new set of chopsticks, please call someone over.”

With another bow, Makoto got up and closed the doors, letting conversation start between the three of them.

“Well,” Shinichi started, looking at Ren with questioning eyes.

“She seems nice. Does Sumire know her?”

“Yeah, she does. Though from what I hear, she consults with her a bit too much when Futaba says something stupid and Sumire doesn’t know about it,” Ren chuckled, remembering many frantic texts he had gotten where Makoto asked him if she should be the one explaining some of the things the youngest said in group chats.

“Does she still say that kind of stuff?” Sojiro asked, suddenly very interested in the topic.

“One second,” Ren said, pulling his phone out.

Going into the group chat, he scrolled a bit before finding an image Futaba posted, a photoshopped image of him flushed red, a mug of beer in hand with a meat bun in the other with another bun in his mouth, with the caption ‘When I get home tonight’ below it.

Turning his phone to show Sojiro, the man just sighed, shaking his head as he thought about what he should do.

“She never stops, does she,” he mumbled as Shinichi looked at it, a questioning look on his face as he tried to figure out what was so bad about it.

“It didn’t seem too bad to me,” he said, picking up a tablet and scrolling through the menu.

Ren paused partway through putting his phone away, glancing at Sojiro, eyes panicking as if to say, ‘I don’t want to tell him.’

“Well, let’s just put it that kids these days have many codes for certain things,” Sojiro said, making Ren sigh as he dodged a bullet, a quick smile conveying thanks that disappeared when ‘Pardon me’ came from the sliding door.

Door sliding open, Makoto placed a small basket of steaming towels and glasses of water onto the table, looking at Ren for a few seconds before looking at Sojiro. “Make sure he’s safe,” she said before sliding back, closing the door behind her.

Looking at Shinichi, Sojiro chuckled as he was passed the tablet, looking through the drink selection.

“Guess you still need a pass from her friends,” he said, passing the tablet to Ren, who took a brief look through it as he tried to figure out what he should start with.

“I suppose I do,” Shinichi said, nodding his head as Ren asked if he should get the same beer as them.

Laying down on her bed, Sumire looked at her phone as she wondered about how Ren was doing.

Her father would be fine; he knew when he hit a limit and could stop. Sojiro, she didn’t know, but given how he seemed more concerned about Futaba than himself, he probably knew when to stop as well. That meant that Ren was the only one she had to be worried about since he was the only one who didn’t know his limits.

Putting her phone to the side, she took her glasses off as she thought about going to sleep early, the darkened room being the only thing that greeted her as she looked around.

She closed her eyes and hoped that everything would be alright, and maybe that her mother would leave her alone.

Staring at his fourth bowl of wasabi octopus, Ren was trying his best skewer the food with a fork.

Perhaps he was weaker than expected, but he quickly lost the ability to use chopsticks after finishing his first mug.

His beer had been watered down at around the halfway point as well, Sojiro requesting a pitcher to help dilute his drink.

But it seemed to be not enough.

With a small mental note to be thankful that Ren wore glasses, the two men watched as he almost missed his mouth a second time in a row.

“Maybe we should call it a night,” Sojiro said as the octopus fell and the fork went up Ren’s nose.

“We should,” Shinichi agreed as Ren started to cry from the wasabi in his nose, rubbing it fiercely with his hand as he couldn’t figure out why the feeling still lingered.

Pushing on the tablet for the check, Sojiro passed Shinichi some bills to cover for his tab, as Makoto came over.

With the bill in hand, she was about to say something when Ren cried again.

“Makoto~~! My nose hurts!”

Looking for an explanation, Sojiro sighed and pointed at the bowl, saying that the fork had gone up his nose.

Putting a hand to her face, Makoto thought about what she should do while Ren kept crying, asking if she could cast Energy Shower.

Passing off questioning looks from the two men over what Ren said as a spell from a game, Makoto helped pull Ren out of the booth, Sojiro and Shinichi guiding him towards the entrance as Makoto said that she would meet them there after taking Shinichi's card.

Wobbling as he walked, Ren kept trying to reach for his nose, only to have his hands get caught on the heads of the two people carrying them.

“Hey, stop that,” Sojiro said, thinking nothing of it as he continued to drag Ren along, while Shinichi had a more somewhat worried look.

“But my nose~~.”

“Tell you what. How about you have your lady friend rub your nose for you when you get back,” Sojiro suggested, hoping that the hand moving towards his face would stop trying to go through him.

“Have Sumi?”

“Yeah, she’ll rub your nose.”

Immediately relaxing his body, Ren stopped walking, making the other two stop in their tracks as he wondered where his rubs were.

“What’s wrong?”

“Where Sumi?”

“She’s home, you have to get her,” Shinichi said, hoping that it would get them moving again.

It didn’t.

Ren planted his feet on the ground, locking his core in a stubborn attempt to keep himself from moving.

“Sumi rub.”

“She’s not here,” Shinichi said patiently, suddenly regretting the idea of going out to drink with Ren as he continued to refuse to move.

“Wait a moment,” Makoto said as she came up from behind, kicking Ren in the knee and making him lose his balance.

Turning around with a look of betrayal, Ren looked up from the floor as Shinichi and Sojiro looked at Makoto, a brief sigh leaving her lips.

“You’re leg hurts, right? Walking will make it hurt more and Sumire will spend more time comforting you.”

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Makoto said, passing Shinichi the receipt and his card as Ren wobbily tried to get up, a look of determination on his face.

"Let's go!"


	25. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before we start with this, I want to say that updates for this are now going to be weekly.  
> With school getting closer, I'm going to have a major project coming up and I need to spend time preparing for it. I hope that I'll be making these updates every Saturday or Sunday starting next week. So, look forward to next week's entries.

Flowers were blooming.

Birds were singing.

And there was a knocking sound coming from somewhere.

As she started to roll around a bit, Sumire opened her eyes to an opening door.

“Sumire?”

“Oh, is it time for lunch?” she asked groggily, squinting as she tried to see who it was.

“No, it not,” a voice said, making its way towards her as Sumire could start to make out the outline of the body.

“Amamiya-kun’s back.”

“Then it’s time for lunch,” Sumire said, laying back down as her eyes started to drift close.

With a sigh, the figure started to shake her, jolting Sumire awake.

Slightly coming to, she looked to see her mother looking at her, a small smile on her face as Sumire wondered why she was waken up.

“Mom?”

“Dad needs help getting Ren to cooperate,” Ayako said, giving Sumire a hand.

Taking it and stumbling a bit, Sumire watched as her father try to move her boyfriend from the entrance, refusing to lift his feet to let his shoes come off.

“Come on, you need to take them off,” Shinichi said, as Ren continued to look away, his leg locked in position as he refused to cooperate.

“Ren?” Sumire asked, making him turn around.

“Sumi!” he shouted, a look of absolute joy on his face as he walked forward.

Surprised at the movement, Sumire froze as Ren went up and hugged her, the smell of wasabi more prominent in his breath than alcohol.

“Ah, hey Ren,” she said, gently hugging back as her parents watched, suddenly unsure of what she should do.

“Can you take your shoes off for me?” she asked, realizing that he still had them on when he rose up.

Nearly taking her down with him, Ren bent over and attempted to untie his shoes, only to find that his finger coordination was as bad at untying shoes as it was at holding chopsticks.

Growling at his inability to take his shoes off, Ren tried to forcefully remove his foot from his shoe and pulled on it.

His knee promptly flew into his chin and he fell over, seemingly stunned at the fact that he hit himself.

Not missing the chance, Sumire bent over and started to undo his shoes, wondering how they managed to get him to cooperate in putting them on if he was in this state as she took them off, passing them to her mother who gave them to her father.

Satisfied that his shoes had come off, Sumire picked Ren up as he continued to cry, seemingly unaware that he was being carried around as she turned and faced her father.

“Sorry for making you do this,” she said, as Shinichi simply shook his head.

“You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, it’s my fault for going out when we didn’t know his limits,” Shinichi chuckled, as Ayako put a hand up to her face, Sumire not needed to look back to figure out what she was hiding under her hand.

Watching as their daughter dragged her boyfriend to her room, Ayako turned to face her husband, who let out a sizeable sigh once he heard the door close.

“Want to join me for a few beers?” he asked, making his way to the kitchen and opening the fridge, checking the lowermost cabinet.

“That bad?” Ayako asked, checking a different drawer as she pulled out some ingredients for snacks.

As he continued to cry, Ren looked around as Sumire put her glasses on, looking down at the complete mess that her boyfriend had become.

She knew that he wasn’t the kind of person to fake being drunk, but she had questions as to why his breath smelled more like wasabi than it did with alcohol.

“Can you get up?” Sumire asked after Ren stopped crying, making her way towards his bag as she started to look for clothes he could change into.

Hearing no response, Sumire wondered if he was just being slow, so she asked again.

When he didn’t answer this time, she turned around to face him and noticed that he had fallen asleep.

A small smile formed on her lips, she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead as she chuckled, going back to his bag and pulling something out.

Suddenly feeling how small it was, Sumire turned to face the boxers she held in her grasp. Staring at it for a few seconds, she eventually reacted by putting it back into the bag, a sudden blush on her face as she realized what she had held.

Shoving it back into the bag, Sumire looked back at Ren as he slept, when she thought of the whole reason she was at his bag.

How was he going to change?

She thought about waking him up, but this was a rare chance for her to watch his sleeping face, and she was unsure if she wanted to wake him up or not.

Watching his rising chest and head slowly rolling to the side, Sumire smiled, reaching for his glasses and took them off, put them down with hers on her desk. Pulling the sheets and some pillows off of her bed, Sumire lifted his head and put a pillow under him.

Putting herself next to him, she put the sheets on top, letting herself drift to sleep.

When she woke up, Sumire found that Ren wasn’t by her side and that the ground felt softer than when she went to sleep.

Looking around, she saw that she was on her bed and that it was made.

Getting up, she put her glasses on and walked out to see Ren sitting at the table.

Well, it was less sitting and more leaning over the table, as he seemed to have his hands over his head, faint sounds leaving his mouth.

“Ren?”

A grunt.

“Are you okay?”

Ren turned to look at her, his eyes seemingly asking if she was serious.

“Do you want me to get you something?”

“Sure,” he moaned, looking back down as Sumire went back to her room.

Walking out with phone in hand, she was looking up recipes as she grumbled a bit.

“We don’t have udon right now, what else is there,” she said, poking around the cabinets, where Ren just growled.

“Ren?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled, turning his head to face her.

“Maybe grumpy that I’m waiting.”

With a shrug, Sumire pulled out some instant dashi and started to pull out other ingredients.

After a few minutes, she walked out of the kitchen with bowls in hand, putting one in front of Ren.

“Do you want some help?” she asked, watching as he raised his head and looked down at the soup before him.

“I’ll try first,” he said, moving his hands and grabbing the bowl. Slowly lifting it, Ren lowered his and put his lips to the rim and sipped some of the liquid.

There was a brief pause as Sumire looked, waiting for a response from Ren.

“It’s good,” he said eventually, making Sumire smile as she took a sip of her own.

Sitting there with the only sound of Ren drinking followed by Sumire waiting in turn, they sat there for a few minutes before Ren lifted the bowl up, finger sliding all the solids that he missed into his mouth.

Lowering his bowl, Ren looked at Sumire as he gave her a nod.

“Thanks,” he smiled, lowering his head back onto the table.

“Anything you want?” Sumire asked, taking the bowl and moving back into the kitchen.

Seemingly pausing at the thought, Ren looked around, glancing between her bedroom and the table.

“Maybe listening to you read a bit more.”


	26. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's to the first of weekly updates.

Placing her laptop on the table, Sumire scrolled through, looking for the last place they had left off.

Ren’s head hadn’t left the table, the occasional sound of discomfort leaving his lips as he glanced up every now and then, making sure that Sumire was still there.

She looked down and smiled at him every time.

“I’ll start now.”

  * _June 10 th, 20XX_



_For the final day of our trip, we sat in on a recording session of a show._

_And the guy from yesterday came onto the stage._

_Akechi Goro._

_Something about him rubs me the wrong way._

_There were many things that he said, things like that the Phantom Thieves should be in a court of law, that a forced confession is no better than the result of a confession brought by torture._

_Knowing how TV works, public opinion will probably follow his thoughts._

_Then I was selected to voice my thoughts on the matter from a host on the show._

_I said that if he thought it was wrong, where are the counterpoints to his argument. As if taken aback, I was inquired further. I said that if Akechi doesn’t know how they're doing it, an assumption of guilt is no better than an assumption of innocence. Or maybe that he was jealous of talk not about him, a rising star in the public space, but something more mysterious than a person who shows up on TV and talks._

_After the recording session, I was standing around on my own when Akechi approached me._

_He said things like how he was surprised with how he had been challenged, and that he found me interesting._

_Carrying on with his talk about the Phantom Thieves, he said that if they came against an unwinnable opponent, that they would run. As if he heard, Arsène seemed to laugh in the back of my mind._

_Trying my best to hide my panic at hearing him, I asked if he was said opponent._

_He just laughed and asked me if we would be willing to talk some more later._

_It piqued my suspicion that he didn’t deny it, so I agreed to it._

Looking away from the screen, Sumire didn’t help but notice the seemingly satisfied smirk on Ren’s face as he seemed to be thinking of something.

“What?” Sumire asked when he made a sound.

“He kept gettin on his high horse bout his power." He was seemingly laughing, but the chuckles turned into moans of pain. "But when the time came, he never stood a chance gainst me.”

Seemingly unperturbed by the sinister tone of his voice, Ren looked back up with a look in his eye, asking for her to continue.

She did after a few moments

  * _June 11 th, 20XX_



_Miss prez is up to something._

_Even though it should’ve been just the three of us hanging out near the vending machines, she thought it probable enough to follow us. She even took a picture._

_Ann called her out on it, saying things like how she wanted the letter of recommendation so badly that she turned a blind eye to the situation with Kamoshida, even some things that I was sure she wouldn’t usually say._

_As if taken aback, prez backed off and said that we should at least behave ourselves._

_With annoyance in their eyes, Ryuji and Ann looked at me, as if they wondered if they were forgetting something._

_I made a pulling motion with one hand, pulling away from my fist, and Ryuji said that’s not how to pull a sword out._

Looking up from the computer, Sumire looked down at Ren, asking with her eyes if that was for real.

He nodded.

_It’s weird right now._

_I wrote the first part of the entry while everyone was out shopping, but now I feel like Yusuke is going to watch me as I sleep._

_What was supposed to be his welcome party turned into a chance for everyone to tell their sob story._

_The nabe was good and all, but then hearing what happened to everyone made it weird, then thoughts about what Akechi said and how the internet acted on it also brought the mood down even further._

_I think Ann said that this would only discourage people from speaking out, not motivate them. We thought about what we could do from this point on, but I just said sleep on it._

_I think Ryuji is starting to get me._

With the sound of a click, Ren looked up to look at Sumire.

“The file ended, so I’m going to the next one,” she said, scrolling through her files.

“Isn time for ya to go?” Ren asked, making Sumire pause at the statement.

“What.”

Looking at the corner of her screen, Sumire yelped as she stood up, scrambling to her room as she slipped on the floor.

Without a moment of hesitation, she rolled expertly, stopping at her door before getting up and opening it.

As she flew past Ren, he gave her a weak thumbs-up as she went out the door, though she didn’t see it as she closed the door behind her.

He stayed like that for about half an hour before he closed Sumire’s laptop closed, pushing at the top of the screen and listened to it close with a ‘clack.’

Thinking about anything else he could do now, maybe try to make something simple for Sumire that she could have when she got back.

Scooting his chair back, Ren tried to get up.

Was his head always this heavy?

Taking a peek at the clock, it said that it was around 10:50. Groaning as he tried to stand again, Ren pressed his hands against his face to keep it up and lumbered over towards the couch.

Falling face first, he moved his head to the side as he tried to think about how he managed to do anything that morning.

Did he do anything that morning?

Trying to think hurt, so he ignored it as he felt his eyes get heavy.

‘This is terrible sleeping posture’ was the last thought he had as he closed his eyes.

Feeling a slow shift in his body, Ren opened his eyes to see Sumire trying to roll him onto his side, a smile on her face.

“Ah, did I wake you?” she asked, backing up to give him space.

Turning to face her, Ren got up and gave a weak smile.

“Maybe.”

Trying to adjust himself, Ren pushed against the couch, leaning against the backrest as he looked up.

“How’s your head?” Sumire asked, sitting next to him as he leaned into her.

“Doesn’t hurt as much,” he said, head resting on her shoulder.

“Did sleeping help?”

“I don’t know.”

A small smile.

“Well, your talk is clear. I think you’re just fine.”

His hand fell to her lap.

“Thanks for this morning.”


	27. Chapter 26

The apartment was quiet when Ayako came back home.

It wasn’t that she had left work early, oh certainly not.

With Ren visibly hungover and asking for someone to move Sumire to her bed as he came stumbling out of her room and sitting at the table so that he had some resemblance of joining them for breakfast even if his head was down and occasionally letting sounds of pain leave his mouth. It just made her wonder how her dear daughter was dealing with it, and how maybe she should be ready in advance for the two to move out.

Oh, it had nothing to do with that.

Nope.

Not at all.

Looking around, she saw the two of them had fallen asleep on the couch, bodies seemingly unaware of their position as Ren’s head was in Sumire’s lap while hers rested on his hip.

Unable to contain her smile, she raised one hand to her mouth as the other took out her phone, fingers trembling with the mirth she felt in watching the pair.

It seemed her grip wasn’t enough though, cause her phone fell through her fingers, her mirth making them shake as it clattered to the floor, making Ren stir.

“Ah, don’t move,” Ayako said, making Ren freeze on the spot when he started to feel something against him.

“Her head’s on your hip, so if you try to get up, you’ll pull her along.”

Trying to think about what he could do, Ren seemed lost in thought, before reaching a hand towards Sumire’s face. With one finger, he felt around before he felt the rim of her glasses.

Keeping a finger there, he extended a second one and felt the bridge of her nose. With a general idea of how her face was positioned, he moved his hand down towards her cheek and gently started to lift her up.

Stirring from the motion, Sumire eventually woke up with her body straightened out. Looking around, she felt something was on her lap, and when she looked down, Ren was there to greet her.

“Your mom is watching us.”

Puffing her cheeks out as she opened her computer, Sumire scrolled through as she looked for the next file, wanting to take her mind off of her smiling mother, her phone having recorded the whole process of Ren lifting her up so that he could move without having her head fall.

“Honestly, to think she would leave work early just for a chance to record something like that,” she huffed, clicking on a file as Ren just chuckled, sitting on her bed as he waited.

“Is it such a bad thing? I’m sure the charm of it will wear off eventually.”

“You don’t understand. If there’s a rerun of a drama on TV, she’ll watch the whole show again,” Sumire huffed again, a last click as she turned to face Ren, indicating that she was ready to read.

“Go ahead.”

  * _June 13 th, 20XX_



_Well._

_We’re in trouble._

“That’s it?” Sumire asked, looking at Ren, who gave a small shrug.

“Let’s say panic was my dominant emotion.”

Looking to see if there was any change in Ren’s face, Sumire sighed when there was none, and turned back to her screen.

  * _June 14 th, 20XX_



_What is the prez thinking?_

_Well, given her position, she probably is, but it sure isn’t showing._

_After threatening us with exposing our identities, she told us to go after some mafia boss._

_Oh sure, like we know what to do from there._

_However, aside from having no choice in the matter, it seemed that everyone else seemed not to mind too much._

_If it proves that dirty mop to be wrong, what can I say?_

“Dirty mop?”

“You know, a mop that hasn’t been cleaned properly in a while, so it starts to take on some color,” Ren said, seemingly thinking nothing wrong with his statement.

“Isn’t that a bit…”

“If he came back now and still wanted to kill me, would you stop him?” Ren asked, his eyes hardening in a way that Sumire hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Yes, no questions asked.”

“Well, there you go,” he said, scooting back on her bed and leaning against the wall.

“My memory is somewhat hazy over the event, but Haru said she didn’t have a problem beheading him if he betrayed us a second time.”

Shivering at what she remembered from the short time she spent with the Thieves, Sumire accepted the fact that no one really minded that Akechi was gone now that Maruki was far behind them.

“I’ll continue.”

  * _June 16 th, 20XX_



_Well._

_We have one final chance._

_I didn’t write it down since I didn’t think it was important, but back when we first started investigating Madarame, a journalist came poking around and gave me her card._

_Since she was looking into Madarame, I think it’s possible that she knows about our potential target._

_I just hope it’s enough to get prez off our back; she’s been rather persistent about learning of our progress._

  * _June 17 th, 20XX_



_May there be mercy on Ryuji and Mishima’s souls. I’ll eat a beef bowl and harass girls in their memory._

_Regardless, the journalist came through, and I have a name._

_Junya Kaneshiro._

_We’ll look into him as a group tomorrow._

_If Ryuji comes out alive, that is._

Looking back at Ren, Sumire had a look on her face that said that she wanted to know but at the same time, she didn’t.

“You don’t.”

  * _June 18 th, 20XX_



_We’re screwed._

_There is no hope._

_We can’t fly._

_Kaneshiro’s Palace is a flying saucer with a bank on top._

_We asked if Mona could turn into a helicopter or something, but he got mad and said that he’s not a robot cat._

_If only he was._

_We’ll think about what to do from tomorrow._

Sumire smirked.

“So, was he hiding his true potential?”

“Who?”

“The helicopter,” Sumire said, twirling her finger around in the air.

“In a way, I guess,” Ren said, adjusting his head a bit after resting it against the wall.

“But was a onetime thing thanks to the star, I don’t know if he could do it again if we had the chance.”

Leaving it to his judgment, Sumire nodded along and looked at the next entry.

  * _June 20 th, 20XX_



_Well, we got into the Palace, but we’re going to have to wait a bit before we go deeper._

_Niijima rashly got us face-to-face with our target, but now we have to deal with a massive debt over our heads._

_Since we need her to gain access to the Palace and that she has a Persona, we’re going to calm her down a bit in Mementos and have her catch up to everyone else in power._

_I hope that beating on Shadows below her power level and getting used to working as a unit helps her steady her mind._

_We're going to need it._


	28. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have another chapter in the works, but an event happened today so I couldn't finish it. It should be up tomorrow.

“You know, I wonder about it sometimes,” Sumire said, turning around to face Ren as he adjusted himself against the wall, stretching his back a bit as he looked at her.

“Was Makoto really that bad at the start?”

“What do you mean?” Ren asked, brows raised as he thought of how to respond.

“It’s just, what I’m reading feels so different from how she is now. Like she really changed from being with you.”

Looking up towards the ceiling, Ren seemed to be lost in thought, stretching his arms as his gaze never faltered.

“Well, I think she just found a healthier way to deal with her frustrations. By having a reasonable excuse to punch things.”

“Was that the nice version of the answer?”

“Yeah.”

Figuring that it was probably best to stop there, Sumire shuffled in her seat a bit before continuing.

  * _June 24 th, 20XX_



_Well, today started off strange._

_I had somewhat forgotten about it, but when we first meet Jose, he gave us a star-shaped charm._

_I thought nothing of it, and the charm stayed in my pocket. But what really surprised me is that we may have figured out a way to use it._

_Being the incarnation of lust that he is, Morgana tried to find a way to do something with Ann, and it worked._

_And it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen._

_I still can’t get the shojo manga version of their faces out of my mind._

_I can only pray that everyone else who comes up with something is a bit more reasonable._

“Was it that surprising?”

“Hm?”

“The showtimes, I think that’s what you called them.”

Looking at her, Ren just gazed at her before shrugging.

“Well, I never thought a man made of darkness would fight for me, but I got used to it,” he responded.

“I was pretty used to it by the time I swung you around and you fell in my arms,” Ren smirked at the last part, reaching his arms out as if to invite her.

Rolling her eyes at that, Sumire turned back to her laptop.

_Now that I’m home and thinking about things, I have questions._

_From what I observed while we had Makoto catch up to us in terms of power, is that she seems to have some form of impeccable memory. Not even just that, she seemed to be aware of Shadows that she had never seen before but could tell what they were weak to._

_Now, most of them were weak ones and one that we had beaten before. If it was because of that, I would’ve accepted it as the power of the Metaverse._

_But something strange happened today._

_Working through the Palace, Makoto seemed to know the weaknesses of Shadows that we had never seen before._

_Not only that, but after combat, no one seemed to question the fact that she knew._

_Hell, I didn’t either until I went into the Velvet Room because I wanted to change my roster of Personas._

_Since Arsène is not almighty, I swapped some Personas around, when I noticed something with the compendium. It happened with Madarame’s Palace as well, but the compendium seemed to expand once we entered Kaneshiro’s Palace._

_When I checked in Mementos, nothing had really changed, the list of Personas was the same as it was when we dealt with Madarame._

_But now that we’ve entered Kaneshiro’s Palace, there are a bunch of new Personas, ones that I haven’t seen in the Palace._

_I tried asking Justine about it, but all she said was that they were gifts and that if I didn’t like it, she could always clear the compendium for me._

_I held my tongue at that; they’re serious about those kinds of threats, before asking about my pocket space, and why I already had some weapons ready for Makoto even though she was a new member. I had similar thoughts when Yusuke joined, but Caroline seemed unimpressed, saying that they were always mine._

_When I raised my brow at that, it seemed that the twins started to realize that maybe something was off._

_I stayed quiet there; nothing good ever happens when I ask them things when they seem frustrated._

_I’ll ask once they’re not in a bad mood._

“I never did get to ask them about it again,” Ren said, startling Sumire.

Turning around to face him, Ren pat the bed beside him.

“Come ‘re, you won’t have to constantly turn around.”

Thinking about it for a bit, Sumire eventually unplugged her laptop and picked it up. Sitting next to him, Sumire got comfortable as she placed the computer on her lap.

“Did you ever ask, Le, Le, La,” Sumire started, to which Ren shook his head.

“Lavenza, and I don’t remember if I did.”

Nodding along with the response, Sumire turned back to her screen.

  * _June 25 th, 20XX_



_We were making good progress, when a strange debacle was presented to us._

_We had stopped yesterday after we unlocked a massive lock that separated the bank from the vault, and we were cruising through said vault today._

_However, once we got even deeper, we were faced with our current conundrum._

_Being the money-grubbing bastard that he is, Kaneshiro has doors in his palace that you have to pay to enter._

_After encountering such a door, we tried to see if we could open some smaller, individual vaults and pay with the money we found in them, but the Palace reacted by sending Shadows are way._

_We managed to beat them back, but it’s clear that we’re going to have to use our own money or try to find a different way around it._

_Makoto is going to try and figure out a separate path from the map, while the rest of us are going into Mementos and try to earn as much money as we can if she can’t figure out a separate path._

_I just hope she finds one; I don’t want to spend too much time running around and shaking down Shadows._

“Did he really have you pay?” Sumire asked, seemingly more curious about the situation than surprised that he would have people pay to move around.

“Well, we didn’t, thankfully. Makoto managed to find a separate route and we took it. But it meant that he was running a pyramid scheme of sorts, that even his lackeys had to pay him some money if they wanted his protection or his ‘business.’”

With a soft hm, Sumire leaned into Ren and looked down to a rather short entry.

  * _June 28 th, 20XX_



_We’ve secured a route to the Treasure._

_Makoto found a path, and we acted on it._

_Tomorrow, we send the calling card._


	29. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is my promised second chapter.

Before Sumire could continue with the next entry, there was a knocking on the door that pulled them away.

“Sumire, Amamiya-kun, can I come in?”

With a sigh of relief, Sumire responded with a 'yeah,' through the door.

Shinichi opened the door, a tray of rice crackers and tea in his hands.

“For the two of you,” he said, placing the tray on Sumire’s desk as he turned to face them, an apologetic look on his face.

“Mom is working on making dinner right now. Some of your favorites,” he said, a weak smile on his face.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but how long will she be like this?” Ren asked, to which Shinichi just laughed.

“If I’m to be honest, it’ll be on and off again. She’ll probably calm down by the time the two weeks are over, but if you come back again…”

“I get it,” Ren said, nodding his head as he waved his hand, showing that he understood.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to it. Dinner should be ready in about two hours.”

“Ah, so the crackers are for her then.”

Ren was promptly flicked on his forehead for that as Shinichi laughed, making his way out of the room.

“You don’t have to say that.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ren chuckled, leaning into Sumire to look at her screen.

“Shall we?”

With a sigh, Sumire continued to read.

  * _June 30 th, 20XX_



_There are many thoughts running through my head right now._

_Kaneshiro went down and all, but he said something about the Black Mask._

_This is the second time, so it seems that it wasn't all bullshit._

_Unlike Madarame, who only seemed to have a passing familiarity about whoever they are, Kaneshiro seemed like he was very aware of their existence._

_He said that they were responsible for all the psychotic break downs and mental shutdowns, as if he might have paid for something to happen._

_We’re going to have to look into this more thoroughly._

“You know, you never go into all the details about your fights,” Sumire said, making Ren’s brows rise.

“Oh, wanting to hear my gallant war stories?” he asked, flexing an arm in a mock show of strength.

“Well, maybe a little.” 

“I would give up if I were you. I only remembered bits and pieces of them, and something would always happen that would make me forget about it afterward,” Ren started, as Sumire looked to see if he was serious.

“If you want information after Futaba joined though,” trailing off at the mention of the navigator.

“It was a passing fancy and nothing more.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“Let’s continue.”

  * _July 4 th, 20XX_



_Man, making friends is great._

_Like Ryuji before her, Ann has figured out what she wants to do in life, and in response, her Persona has evolved._

_I won’t put all the details down because I shouldn’t be the one recording it, but she got to tell Shiho that she’s strong, and that they’ll be friends regardless of distance and will support each other._

_I guess that means I’ll have to see where everyone goes from here._

  * _July 7 th, 20XX_



_Even though nothing really happened today, the urge to write hit me._

_I went on a ‘date’ with Kasumi to Inoshira park again._

_Instead of killing me, we went on a little boat ride in the middle of the lake._

_It was cute how she tried to paddle us back to shore, though it became less cute when she nearly ran into four different boats._

_I paddled the rest of the way back, where she joined me in some fake flirting._

_Hopefully, I can make it real by years end and ..._

Seeing that she had gotten all quiet, Ren checked on her to see what was wrong.

“Tell me you didn’t write that down,” she said quietly when Ren took the laptop, checking to see if there was anything hidden there.

“Yeah, no way I would’ve written this.”

Seeing all the changes that were made, Ren wondered if he should just ask Sojiro if he could borrow the physical copy for a bit and have Futaba send him the digital files she set up so he could edit out all of the ridiculous additions that she would’ve made.

Looking further down into the long page of explicit content that was added, Ren paused for a moment, as he looked at something.

“I think I recognize that…”

With a flustered look on her face, Sumire snatched the laptop from Ren’s hands and closed it, putting it on her desk.

“We’re done for today,” she said, her face red as she rushed to the door, grabbing her school tracksuit.

Even though this was something that Ren usually would feel relaxed doing, the fact that he couldn’t tell if it was tears from the onion or a nervous sweat running down his face was scaring him.

Since Sumire had gotten all flustered and ran off, Ren hadn’t seen her, so he assumed that she was still out for a jog.

That by itself wouldn’t be an issue, Makoto and Haru put in meticulous care so that the girls would be fine on their own.

No, the issue was that he was alone with Ayako, and the smile that she had been trying to hide ever since he entered the kitchen was slowly starting to reveal itself.

“So~~, any reason that she would’ve run off like that?” Ayako started, her grin now showing itself in full force.

Averting his gaze at the question, Ren’s mind was starting to overheat as he started to cut at nothing, his knife slowly moving towards the edge of the cutting board and towards the counter.

“There’s nothing there, dear.”

Snapping to attention at that, Ren adjusted the onion as he started to cut again, trying to see if he could pass off not answering the question.

“Well, if you’re not ready to tell me, maybe she would be…”

“It was a text from Futaba.”

“Oh?”

Looking at Ren, Ayako was much more interested in what he had to say.

“It, it was…” Ren wanted to say something, but he really couldn’t think of what to say. While it was true that Futaba loved to target them with lewd texts and unwanted advice on how to carry out their relationship, Ren had no idea how to turn the page of delusional fantasy into a teasing text. It didn’t come off as such thoughts to Ayako though, who thought that Ren was embarrassed over not wanting to tell her anything.

“Now, we’re both adults here. You can tell me,” Ayako said, her grin growing even wider as Ren seemed to panic, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

“What were the details? If you’re lying about anything, I can always ask Futaba-chan later,” she continued, cornering Ren with the fact that she was in contact with Futaba.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so easy to get out of this one as he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No update next week, as I'll be working on the Kaneshiro fight in Battles


	30. Chapter 29

Dinner was quiet that night as Sumire watched the awkward atmosphere between Ren and her mother. He kept avoiding eye contact while Ayako kept trying to look at him, her grin openly exposed as no hands were available to cover it up.

When she came back from her jog, Ren was sitting on the couch, a look of total defeat on his eyes as he was slumped over, while Ayako was serving dinner, the look of joy on her face making Sumire’s stomach drop.

While she thought that it was his fault for saying that he recognized what Futaba had added, getting the kind of interrogation that her mother would give over something like that was too harsh.

If anything, it made her even more nervous since she had no idea what sort of information Ayako pulled out of him.

Once they were done with dinner, Sumire watched as he excused himself to her room, passing his plates to Shinichi to avoid looking at Ayako, who was cleaning dishes in the kitchen.

“What did you do to him?” Shinichi asked, passing the plates to her while Sumire looked somewhat concerned, like she was unsure if she could leave or not as she wiped them off.

“Oh, it wasn’t too much,” Ayako grinned, making Sumire leave as soon as she saw how wide the smile was, putting plates down and rushing off to her room.

“Do we need to talk about this?” Shinichi asked when he heard the door close, turning to look at his wife.

“It’s perfectly fine,” she said, smile shrinking a bit as it turned into a laugh.

“If anything, it should help them move along a bit more.”

Oh, how ‘love’ makes one blind.

Closing the door behind her, Sumire looked at her boyfriend huddled in the corner, back against the wall as he looked at her come in.

“Are you okay?” she asked, staying an arm’s length away as she sat against the wall.

Silence.

“Should I read some more?”

No response.

“We can keep it short if you're worried about staying up late.”

A slight stir.

Getting her laptop, Sumire flipped it open and looked for where they had left off.

As she scrolled through, there was a slight blush as she passed the now seemingly longer section of explicit content, before finding the start of a new day.

  * _July 9 th, 20XX_



_We’re in the clear. No longer do we have Kaneshiro looming over us for a ‘debt,’ but we also now have Makoto off the case at school._

_Even if he tries to dig around on his own, I doubt he will be able to make any real progress. Makoto said that he was rather dependent on her to do all the legwork for him._

_And as expected of the student council president, reminded us that studying came first._

_I’m pretty sure Ryuji and Ann died on the inside when they realized that they couldn’t get away with not studying._

_I look forward to having them come cry to me that they failed and don’t know what to do with Makoto on their case._

_They were good comrades._

“Did you really think they were going to die?” Sumire asked, surprised that Ren entertained the thought.

A shake of his head.

“D-did they think they were going to?”

A nod.

“Did you help them?”

A shake.

“Did you laugh?”

A small grin.

“You can be so cruel.”

Ren gave a look as if to say she didn’t have her moments.

“My mother is not something I can control.”

She carried on.

  * _July 10 th, 20XX_



_I don’t know why, but Ryuji and Ann are treating me like a shield to protect themselves from Makoto._

_Sojiro was out today, so I was alone in Leblanc for quite a while, but everyone showed up for a study session in the evening._

_Not like I need the help._

_In good fashion for a Leblanc meet up, everyone told their own stories again, and after Makoto threatened to walk out if Ryuji didn’t want help, we started to study._

_I’m seriously starting to think that I am a shield to protect them from Makoto’s wrath if they don’t study._

“Is she that scary?” Sumire asked, pulling Ren’s line of sight to her.

A vacant stare met her, asking what she meant.

“I never remember Makoto being something worth hiding from,” Sumire continued, getting a small grin from Ren.

“Were you scared of her?”

A shake.

“It was Ryuji, right?”

A grin.

“He never learned, did he.”

_While we took a brief break, Akechi came up on the news._

_Honestly, I’m surprised that he managed to get back on tv._

_He was giving his opinion on what we did, and as usual, it wasn’t a glowing review._

_Saying that if our methods could make someone confess to crimes that didn’t exist, that we were no better than the criminals we arrested._

_He also said things about circumventing the law, but it seems pretty obvious to me that he doesn’t like someone circumventing his authority._

_What a satisfying feeling of victory now that I’m thinking about it._

_And also, we’re going to a fireworks festival for Makoto’s welcome party._

Perhaps hoping for some comment, even if it was a snide one against Akechi, Sumire paused to see if Ren would say something.

He didn’t, but she could see the grin on his face. She would leave it at that.

  * _July 11 th, 20XX_



_I had a run-in with Kasumi today._

_She got the position of club representative that she wanted and wanted to let me know._

_How sweet._

_Akechi came by as well, and it seemed that they were acquainted._

_He took us to a café that he goes to as a celebration, and I’ll keep it in mind for future reference._

_I did notice pancakes on the menu though._

_Your lie about sweets won’t trick me._

_We talked a bit more before the topic of the Phantom Thieves came up, and Akechi asked Kasumi what she thought about them._

_While she thinks that we’re doing good, she thinks that there’s going to be an overdependence on us._

_She thinks that if things are going down their current path, that people are going to count on us as a safety net to deal with their own problems and not try to deal with it on their own._

_And as much as I hate to admit it, she’s somewhat right._

_I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but all of our requests in Mementos dealt with people who are in Tokyo. What would happen if we started to get requests to deal with people in other places, like Osaka or Hokkaido. As far as I’m aware, we can’t influence people who live there._

_Will it really become a situation where we can’t deal with everything, but people will still expect results out of us._

_The thought somewhat scares me._

Hearing a slight movement from Ren, Sumire turned to look at him, when she realized that something had changed.

“Ren?”

It was a quiet shift, but he was noticeably closer to her than when they had started, and she was somewhat worried that he was upset.

“Are you okay?”

Putting the laptop to the side, Sumire reached a hand out.

It was grabbed and she was pulled in, surprising her as a gleam she had never seen in his eyes started to glow.

“Sorry,” was all he said, before pulling her in, locking his lips with hers.


	31. Chapter 30

Breakfast was a lovely quiet that morning, as Ren and Sumire slept in.

Ayako was gone and had left for work, meaning that they could enjoy each other’s company and not have to worry about being asked about how their night had gone.

Relaxing as they ate some rice and miso soup, Sumire let out a satisfied sigh as she finished the fish that she made, Ren saying that he didn’t need any.

“It’s nice when it’s like this,” Sumire said softly, leaning back into her chair as Ren gave her a smile.

“It is, especially since your shirt is somewhat loose,” he grinned, making Sumire look up at him, wondering what he was talking about.

“I can see my marks from this morning.”

Ren let the statement hang in the air for a moment before Sumire blushed, looking down to see all the marks that were indeed present around her collarbone.

“Ah, ah,” Sumire stuttered, mind seemingly stuck on something.

“Oh, going to practice sleeveless today? Shame, it draws attention away from your neck,” Ren said with a grin, bracing his legs for a kick that never came.

“What do I do?” Sumire was in a slight panic, trying to figure out how she was supposed to cover up the results of their morning.

“Well, you can always ask Ann for help when she’s in town. I’m sure she’d love to do makeup on someone who wants it,” Ren shrugged, getting the kick he expected earlier.

“Not like it’s a secret either; the girls at camp saw you with marks.”

Pausing at the thought, Sumire only flushed a new shade of red, for which Ren just chuckled a bit.

“What, did the excitement of something new last night make you forget?”

Pausing as she thought about it, Sumire blushed even further, covering her chest as Ren laughed a bit more.

“I’m sorry, but you’re just so easy to tease,” he said, a Joker grin breaking up from him chuckling.

Pouting in response, Sumire looked away from him, taking her plates and leaving them in the sink.

“IF you would please,” she huffed, making her way to her room.

Ren just chuckled, taking his plates up, letting the water run as he took Sumire’s plates.

As he felt the water run over his hands, a brief thought ran across his is mind. There was something about water that he seemed to have forgotten about.

What was it again?

Letting the thought go, he finished doing the dishes, though it seemed to linger longer than he expected.

As she sat on her bed, Sumire checked her neck in a small mirror that she kept in one of her drawers, a gift from Ann from when she had come back from America.

How was her fellow Lady Thief doing?

The last time that she got in contact with her was a happy birthday message, but that was nearly six months ago.

For a few moments, Sumire wanted to know, but she didn’t know if Ann would take to kindly to a call at the moment.

Plus, she had to leave for practice soon, and she would hate having to cut her off to leave.

_Let me know when you can call, I want to talk about something_

Making sure she didn’t say too much, Sumire sent the message and started to get changed.

Hearing her come out of her room, Ren looked up from where he was sitting.

He had moved to the couch after he finished the dishes, sitting there as his thoughts kept digging at him.

“Going to practice?”

“Yeah,” Sumire nodded, making her way to the door.

“I’ll be heading out today and probably won’t be back for lunch. If you want something, Leblanc should be open,” Ren said, a thumbs up from Sumire as started to put her shoes on.

“Send me there when you get mad about something. It’ll pay for your bill,” he finished, making Sumire laugh as the door closed behind her.

Smiling at his own joke, Ren waited for a few minutes, before pulling his phone out.

It had been buzzing for a while, and now that his train of thought had been broken, it was a perfect chance to see who it was.

Looking down at his clothes and making sure that it was alright, Ren checked his phone to make sure that he was in the right area.

Harajuku was not a place he frequently visited, the last time being two years ago while he was still in Leblanc, and even then, he didn’t go there very often. Making his way through the crowd was not very easy, especially since some girls were calling out to him. He hoped that it was because of his face and not his fashion choice. He wasn’t going to change out of the few sensible clothes that Sumire said suited him.

Coming to the area that he thought was right, Ren paused as he looked back down at his phone, scratching his head when a voice came up from behind him.

“Man, still getting lost if it doesn’t relate to work?” it asked.

Turning around to see who, Ren already had a smile on his face as long blond hair met him, with a familiar smile greeting him as well.

“Hey,” he said, reaching for a hug that was quickly reciprocated, feeling many of the eyes that were on him look away.

“Really? Nearly eight months and all I get is a ‘Hey?’” the voice laughed back.

“That part of you hasn’t changed at all Ren.”

Sitting down in a café where Ren felt that nearly all eyes were on him, he tried to make his way through the tea that Ann had recommended to him. But he honestly felt that it wasn’t because of him that he was being watched.

“Man, it’s been a while since I’ve been back here,” she said, stretching out in a manner that reminded Ren of the long hours that they used to spend in Mementos.

“Can you get away acting like that? A bunch of eyes are on you,” Ren asked as he took a sip of his drink, grimacing internally at a flavor that he could only call fruity if he was being nice.

“What? I get to meet a friend, and they expect me to act like I do on set?” Ann huffed; her long hair tied up into a single ponytail swinging with her shaking her head.

“If that was the cost, who would get into modeling?” she snorted, making her way into a parfait that was perhaps larger than one would expect a single person to eat.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ren just sat as Ann ate her parfait, taking sips of his tea, as he tried to ignore the eyes watching them.

When she reached the halfway point in her parfait, Ann paused to look at Ren, looking out the window as he continued to sip on his tea.

“So, as for why I called you here, …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheap cliffhanger is cheap, but it's getting late and I'm getting sweepy. Also, I got enough notes done to go for a few chapters of entries, so those will come back soon enough.  
> And by soon, I mean tomorrow if Smash doesn't tempt me too hard.


	32. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized as I started to write this that entries have to start next week. Oops.

“How are you two doing?” Ann asked, a light sparkle in her eyes as she looked at him.

“That covers a lot of things,” Ren said, looking back at his tea, pondering if he should finish it or not.

“Have you done it yet?”

Ren paused as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to say.

“Is that the reason you called me out here?” he asked after contemplating for a few seconds.

“Yeah.”

He wasn’t going to finish his tea.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was joking when I said that. It’s been eight months since we’ve talked, don’t leave yet!” Ann said, clinging to Ren as he made his way towards the door of the café.

“Good to see this part of you hasn’t changed as well,” Ren said, sighing as he made his way back to their table as he looked back at his tea.

“Ah, you can be so mean sometimes,” Ann huffed, sliding back into her chair as she took a bite of her parfait, looking to see how Ren reacted.

“I think it’s less being mean and you stepping over boundaries,” Ren said, wincing internally as he drank some more tea.

“C’mon, you’re the only one among us that’s in a relationship, of course I’d want to know,” Ann said, taking another bite.

“Wouldn’t bringing this up with Sumire be a better idea?”

“I would, but she’s so busy, and talking to someone in LA or New York isn’t easy from Japan, especially since my schedule just doesn’t match.”

Sighing as he looked at her, Ren just wondered if there was something he could do to get out of this.

“Well, I know where she goes for practice,” Ren said, thinking how he could turn the conversation away from intimate moments. “And since I assume you called for me and not her, you don’t know her schedule enough but assumed that I was free.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know I was in Tokyo unless someone told you, did Futaba tip you off?”

Ann laughed, her speed eating her parfait noticeably increasing.

“You make it sound like you’re a wanted man,” she said, going at a speed that gave Ren hints of Sumire in what he saw.

“Well, take me to your lady, my good sir,” Ann said, getting up as she made her way towards the entrance.

Even though he said he knew her schedule, Ren took Ann to the building about half an hour early, figuring that she probably wanted to check the place out on her own.

“Keeping good on your promise of exercise?” Ren asked as they stepped in, getting a look of contempt from Ann.

“I’ll have you know that I am in the definition of being in shape, and today’s splurge was a treat for being with a friend.”

“It would’ve been fine if I ordered something on par with what you did then?” Ren asked, a light gleam in his eye.

“I got excited talking to a friend and said more than I should’ve, I don’t have enough cash for two,” Ann said as she looked away, making Ren laugh as he sat down, a pamphlet catching his eye.

He looked at it for a few minutes, before his mind started to turn, trying to think what it was about that made him think.

“What are you – Ah!”

Ren jumped a bit as he turned around, Ann looking over his shoulder as she looked at the pamphlet Ren was looking at.

“Swimsuit season is nearly over, but I still need to look at what was popular,” she said, pulling her phone out as she took a memo of it.

Thinking little of the swimsuit part, Ren’s mind started to turn as he realized what it was from that morning that he was thinking about.

“Oh, Ren!”

Turning at the voice he loved so, Ren looked to see Sumire walk over from the elevator, a look of surprise on her face as she got closer.

“What are you doing here? I thought you would be out?” she asked, before looking to see who was sitting behind him.

“Ann-senpai?”

“Hey,” said girl grinned, getting up for a hug that came a bit faster than she expected.

“When did you come back?” Sumire asked as Ren turned his attention back to the pamphlet he was looking at.

“Oh, no real reason. Is it so wrong to come by every once in a while?” Ann asked as they broke the hug.

“Was she the reason…” Sumire started to ask before Ren cut her off.

“Nope, had something else, but she contacted me first,” he said as he got up from his seat.

“You two have fun, I’ll head back and prepare for dinner.”

Sitting down in a park, Sumire fidgeted a bit as she looked between Ann and herself.

“Something wrong?” Ann asked, making Sumire flinch.

“Ah, what, no, nothing,” she said, avoiding eye contact as she looked back at herself.

“Don’t worry if it’s because of what you’re wearing. My timing was somewhat bad, wasn’t it?”

Looking up at Ann, Sumire could only blush as she had been figured out so easily, a form of respect in her eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, you’re the one with a boyfriend,” Ann said, a smile on her face as she looked at Sumire, a light blush on her face.

“So, what was the message you sent to me about?”

As he walked up the stairs towards the apartment, Ren thought about what would be a good option for dinner.

He hadn’t forgotten his thought on the pamphlet, and Ann mentioning swimsuits made him remember what it was about.

But that wasn’t his priority now, no.

Who knew how long Ann and Sumire would talk, so he was going to take the chance and try something that he hadn’t done before, and hoped that he could pull it off.

Opening the door and reaching for the nob, a sudden and impending sense of dread filled him as something seemed to come from behind him.

“Oh, did you have a nice day?” Ayako asked, grinning as she placed a hand on Ren’s shoulder.

Maybe it was time to have Morgana come join them.


	33. Chapter 32

As she walked towards home, Sumire was surprised to see Ren come from the opposite direction, a tired look in his eyes as he glanced around.

“Ren!” she called out, grabbing his attention as she picked up her pace.

“Hey,” he responded, picking up his pace as well.

“I thought you came back before me,” Sumire said, looking up towards her apartment as she wondered why he was out.

“I did, but I went to go get someone,” Ren said, grinning as a small bag swung on his shoulder.

Noticing the bag, Sumire looked to see what it was, when a familiar black head poked out, looking at her.

“To think that he only lasted four days, he’s so pathetic,” the black face said, getting a flick on the nose for that comment.

“If you had to deal with being asked how you would make love to Ann by her mother, how long do you think you would last?” Ren asked, making the ‘cat’ look the other way.

“I’d be a gentleman, of course,” he huffed, looking towards Sumire as if to get confirmation.

“Describe it graphically.”

A pause as the black cat turned to look at Ren, his eyes showing a form of distress and horror as the thought ran through his head.

“See, and you can’t use the excuse you’re a cat because that would be much worse.”

“Um, can we move onto a different topic,” Sumire asked, a light blush on her face as she thought about what Ren said.

“Sure,” Ren said, making his way up the stairs as he ignored the blank look on Morgana’s face as he thought a bit more about what his friend said and its implications.

Upon reaching her apartment, Sumire noticed that Ren had decided to keep some distance from the door, a fact that Morgana noticed as well.

“Ren?” he asked, looking as his friend seemed to wait it out.

“If the coast is clear, it gives me a head start to put some of your fur on my clothes.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” the cat asked, looking to Sumire, who gave a weak laugh in response.

“So is that all I am to you? A meat shield?”

“A fur shield, to be precise.”

Ignoring the squabbling between the two of them, Sumire opened the door, announcing her return.

Unable to ignore the massive sigh she heard, Sumire turned to look as Ren sat on the floor, giving Morgana a few gentle pats on the head as he looked up, a soft smile on his face.

When Ren walked in, he made sure that Morgana was watching over his shoulder, and the look of satisfaction on his face when Ayako started to walk toward him and stopped was something that Sumire never thought she would see.

In fact, her mother was rather quiet for the rest of dinner and seemed to have a look of disappointment in her eyes as she watched Morgana lay on the couch.

“Was it worth it to you?” she asked, watching as the two seemed to go back into a well-practiced pattern, the gentle sound of the cat’s purrs filling the room.

“It was,” Ren said without hesitation, a look of relief as he said so.

“To not have to worry about what sort of things she would ask was a big plus.”

“Surely, needing to use allergies…”

“She asked me how your hand felt once.”

With the purr being the only sound in the room, Sumire looked the other way as she tried to hide her blush.

“Are, are you sure that she meant…”

“Her grin said otherwise.”

Keeping her gaze away, Sumire plopped down in her chair and opened her laptop.

“Let’s take our mind off that,” she said, a nod of approval coming from Ren.

  * _July 17 th, 20XX_



_Well, today was a mixed bag._

_First, Ryuji acted like he was some sort of extra asked to get on set to fill in for the star. That went up on TV._

“Ah, that was hard to watch,” Morgana huffed, leaning back into scritches.

“Don’t interrupt,” Ren said curtly, moving away from scritches to pets, a noticeable downgrade in lovings.

_After that, the whole reason that we had gone out was for a meat festival, and all I got was a dropped snow cone._

_Though if anything fails, Ryuji can be a fantastic photographer, what timing it took to catch me dropping the snow cone. And at least Yusuke managed to get some form of meat._

_After that disappointing ‘meal,’ Ryuji said something about a stadium being under construction, and since there was nothing else to, we decided to check it out._

_However, it was only at the very beginning of construction, and it looks like they’re still digging for a foundation._

_After that realization, Ryuji said he was gonna go get some food, and Yusuke said he was going to get art supplies._

_I think ‘creativity’ is what keeps him alive. Either that or he eats paper._

A light snort from Sumire as she giggled, looking at Ren, who just gave her a shrug.

Morgana gave him a glare, but said nothing out of fear of losing pats.

_Regardless, instead of heading my own way, I spotted Kasumi a few steps away. She seemed to be looking at the stadium as well, and I wondered what it was about._

_Walking up to her, she seemed surprised that I was there, and asked me what I was doing._

_I don’t remember much from that point, but what I do remember was that it seemed like she had been crying._

_After that though, we went to a family restaurant, and I was in for a show._

_Forget her beef bowl order, Kasumi ate what was probably four times the size of that._

_I think her stomach has its own pocket for food._

_She seemed a bit cheerier after that, but the mood quickly dampened again as the reason for her tears was brought up._

_Even though she got a podium finish, it wasn’t first, and she felt like she was failing. Not just herself, but one other person._

_Her younger sister who died earlier this year._

There was a slight pause again as Sumire looked at the screen, her breathing somewhat shallow as her hands rested on the arrow keys.

“Do you want me to read?” Ren asked, placing his arm under the cat just in case.

“No. No, I can do this,” Sumire said, turning to Ren with a look of determination.

“I need to do this.”

With a short nod, a satisfied look crossed Ren’s face, a smile crossing his face.

“Carry on.”

_It seemed like she cared for her a lot, and they had a promise that they would reach the world stage together. It seems like the shock of losing her sister is still affecting her._

_I’m not the best person for saying things like this, but I tried my best to give her advice, and I’m surprised that any of it worked._

_I hope that she can move forward with this. I look forward to her good results and for her to smile._


	34. Chapter 33

Taking a moment of silence, Sumire steadied her breath as she looked to Ren, a somewhat nervous look on her face.

“You okay?” he asked, his hand still on Morgana’s head as he continued the pats.

“I, I’m fine.” Her response was quiet, but it seemed that she kept her resolve.

“Still hard to think about it?” Ren asked, picking the cat up as he rose, making his way over to Sumire.

“Yeah.”

“Want to hold a distraction?”

“Hey!”

A light giggle.

“I would like to hold a light distraction, yes.”

Grumbling under his breath, Morgana accepted that he was being passed as a distraction.

“At least it’ll stay as scritches,” he muttered under his breath, glaring at Ren as he settled down in Sumire’s lap.

“I’ll continue.”

  * _July 18 th, 20XX_



_I feel for anyone who may end up as Yusuke’s girlfriend. And I might be identified by Ryuji as moss._

_Jokes aside, the fireworks festival that we were supposed to have as our celebration for Makoto’s welcome party was canceled by rain._

_And some group seemed to want attention by bringing us up._

_We shouldn’t have to worry too much about it, but it would be best to look into it a bit._

“That’s all you thought about them?” Sumire asked, turning to Ren, who was now sitting on her bed.

“What do you want me to say?” he shrugged, a look of disdain on his face as he lowered his shoulders. “With what I know in hindsight, it’s scary what sort of threat they could’ve been.”

“Economic downfall of Japan wasn’t the worst thing that could happen?”

“Oh, it’ll say when we get there. You congratulated me for it.”

Thinking about what Ren said, Sumire looked down at Morgana, who seemed utterly absorbed in the scritches.

She carried on.

  * _July 20 th, 20XX_



_I have many thoughts running through my head right now._

_Someone who seems way too knowledgeable on our methods contacted me._

_It was from school first, someone named Alibaba came in contact._

There was a pause after that, making Ren turn his head, wondering what the issue was.

“There, seem to be some more edits,” Sumire said, making Ren get up.

“I’ll take over reading, we don’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday.”

Sliding out of her chair, Sumire moved as she carried Morgana, an unhappy mew as his lovings had stopped, but he quickly fell back in order after she sat down.

 _~~He~~ _ _She seemed to know that we actually stole hearts and that we were in trouble with finding information on Medjed._

_I tried to respond but got no answer._

_We all gathered together and tried to think about it, but the information is too specific for it to be a prank. Makoto believes that whoever did this ( ~~ME! And all too eas~~ y) managed to get into our chat logs and saw everything we did._

_Thinking that there wasn’t much more we could do, we went to Leblanc to think some more in private, when the next surprise happened._

_Alibaba sent us a calling card._

_Not only do they know who we are, but where I live ( ~~cause I live there too!~~ )._

_It’s going to be a long road ahead of us._

Looking behind him, Ren saw how engrossed Sumire was in the story, hand having stopped scritching Morgana, how made sure to let her know of his displeasure once Ren had stopped.

“That exciting?” he asked, a light smile as he looked at her.

“Huh? No, it’s just so strange to hear how this one played out,” she responded, making Ren chuckle.

“I guess that’s true. Compared to everything else, this one seems the strangest, right?” he laughed, turning back to the screen.

“Final thoughts?”

“No.”

“Alright.”

  * _July 21 st, 20XX_



_I have questions._

_First and foremost, it seems like Alibaba did send us the calling card yesterday._

_I got contacted during school again, and this time, I got a response._

_~~He~~ _ _She seemed rather frustrated that whoever their target ( ~~Me~~ ) hadn’t had their heart stolen yet. After being asked why it happened yet, I requested a name. It’s Sakura Futaba._

_I had a moment of pause at that and we held another meeting. The named somewhat familiar ( ~~it should’ve~~ ), and I wanted to talk about it._

_It was a rather upsetting meeting, especially when Alibaba contacted us again. After trying to communicate some things, Alibaba cut us off, saying that if we didn’t do what ~~he~~ she asked for, ~~he’d~~ she’d turn our information into the police._

_So I went with my gut, and it seems like a hit. I can’t poke around anymore though, cause Sojiro got extremely mad. I can’t risk anything right now._

Before he said anything, Ren lifted a finger, turning around to face Sumire as he looked at her.

“Before you ask, some of the questions you may have will be answered in following entries.”

Taking a nod as confirmation, Ren turned back to the computer and continued to read.

  * _July 22 nd, 20XX_



_Well, things just keep getting stranger._

_First, when I came back to Leblanc today, there was a woman there, and she seemed to be grilling Sojiro pretty hard._

_Something about a woman named Wakaba, and he seemed to get really mad at her for ‘tipping me off’ about Futaba._

_The ~~good customer~~ really seemed to be forcing his hand with information about Wakaba and was bringing up charges of ~~REDACTED~~ and ~~REDACTED~~ , even going as far as that Sojiro’s guardianship could be in question._

_That seemed to be the limit, as Sojiro said he would talk, but he didn’t sound happy about it either._

_When I asked him about guardianship, he just yelled at me, telling me to close up shop, and if I dug around anymore, he would kick me out._

Turning around to face Sumire, Ren raised a finger, grinning as if to say that it gets better.

  * _July 23 rd, 20XX_



_Well, a few things that we put together from yesterday’s information, along with something new._

_We can assume that Alibaba is our requested target, Sakura Futaba._

_First thing was that ~~REDACTED~~ , and that ~~REDACTED~~_

Pausing for a moment, Ren just shook his head.

“Give me a moment to laugh.”

“What?” Sumire asked, curious as to what made him pause.

“She’s taken out how we managed to figure out that she was Alibaba,” Ren said, raising his hand as he tried to hide his laugh.

“In hindsight, it’s easy to figure out, but I think she didn’t like the idea that we figured it out so quickly in the moment.”

Continuing to laugh, Ren eventually stopped, turning back to the screen.

“Where were we?”

_Since Alibaba thinks we need to be physically present to steal someone’s heart, the deal was called off._

_~~He~~ She said that we were in the clear and ~~REDACTED~~._

_To match our celebratory mood, we declared that we’ll have sushi with the money we got from selling Kaneshiro’s briefcase._


	35. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been spoilin' yall with two updates every weekend, which wasn't my original plan when I shifted to weekly updates, but not happening this week. Other things to attend to.  
> Expect the double updates to return next week.

Leaning back for a moment, Ren stretched his arms, raising them above his head as he turned to look at Sumire.

“Still have questions?” he asked, leaning back to look over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” she responded, her hand still on Morgana’s chin as the lovings continued.

“Good, cause a lot of them are about to be answered.”

  * _July 24 th, 20XX_



_A lot of things happened today._

_Medjed has officially forced our hand with a threat of attack._

_We found out after we had our sushi party when mop head told us about it._

_We need Alibaba if we’re going to stop this._

_Since Morgana couldn’t openly eat in the restaurant, we took his portion with us, and we used it as a sacrifice to gain access to Futaba._

A light hiss came, but no other form of protest left the cat as Ren carried on.

_When we went to drop off the sushi to Sojiro, the door was open and the lights were on, so we pushed forward._

_It seemed like no one was home, so it was somewhat strange. And as it does in classic horror, the power went out. As we tried to make our way out of the house, someone was watching us over the shoulder._

_Makoto screamed, along with ~~Futaba~~ a small girl. It seemed that Sojiro was just outside._

_Upon seeing that it was us and hearing that we may have seen Futaba, he realized that there was nothing more he could do to hide it._

_He told us the story of how he came to take care of Futaba, and it’s rather upsetting._

There was a pause as Ren seemed to scroll around a bit, seemingly looking for something.

“Ah, she deleted it,” he huffed, leaning back in his chair.

“Ren?” Sumire asked, watching as his brows furrowed.

“Give me a moment, I’m trying to remember,” he responded, looking back at the screen.

And he sat there for a few moments, trying to remember.

“Why did she delete it?” he muttered under his breath, his gears visibly turning as he continued to think.

“Ah, you’re taking too long,” Morgana huffed, “I’ll tell it.”

Ren gave him a look but didn’t say anything as Morgana repositioned himself to look at Sumire.

“Futaba’s mom was a friend of Sojiro’s when used to work for the state,” the cat started, drawing Sumire’s attention to him.

“She was a good mother, working by herself to support Futaba. Until her alleged suicide.”

Sumire gasped, looking at Ren to see if it was true.

He nodded.

“What’s even worse is how it happened,” Morgana continued, as Ren's mind started piecing everything together.

“Wait,” he said, as a look of realization dawned on his face.

“She jumped in front of a car before Futaba’s eyes,” the cat finished, making Ren freeze as looked up, mind racing as he thought of how Sumire would respond.

She had frozen up, making Ren get up and reach a hand out to her, placing it on her shoulder. Morgana, on the other hand, didn’t realize why she had tensed up, eyes going between looking up at Sumire and up at Ren before he realized as well.

“Sumi,” Ren said softly, placing another hand on her shoulder as he looked at her still face.

It took a few seconds, but she eventually responded, leaning into his touch, her breathing somewhat shallow.

“I, I’m okay.”

“Need a second?”

She didn’t respond, but she kept her eyes on Ren, breathing slowly returning to normal as Morgana looked up, worry in his eyes as he watched the two of them.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Looking at each other, Ren backed off, relief on his face as he saw the determination burn in Sumire’s eyes.

“I, I’m sorry about that,” Morgana said, turning away from Sumire, looking down at the floor as he positioned himself to jump off.

Before he jumped, a hand rested on his head, making him pause as an arm cam from below, pulling him back.

“Make up for it, don’t run.”

Looking up, Morgana saw Sumire look down at him, somewhat teary-eyed, but she seemed set with this path of action.

Looking at Ren, who was now sitting on the bed next to Sumire, Morgana eventually gave up, sitting up as he started to feel the hand on his head start with pats.

“I’ll continue,” Ren said, adjusted himself before turning to Sumire.

“People claimed that it was maternity neurosis that killed Wakaba, but Sojiro thought differently. Even worse, if it shows up, is how Futaba came to blame herself for it.”

The room was quiet, the light ‘pat-pat’ on Morgana’s head being the only sound as Sumire started to lean against Ren, the pats somewhat slowing down.

“Want to call it a night after we finish the entry?”

A slow nod.

Gently pushing back against Sumire, Ren got up and sat in front of the laptop, looking for where he had stopped.

_After Sojiro left, telling me to lock up, we tried to see if Futaba has a Palace. It was a hit._

_This is going to be hard._

_Futaba is different from our normal targets; she’s just a small girl who wants her heart to be fixed, but who knows what can happen if things go wrong._

_But we have no other choice. We don’t have easy access to anyone who can so easily deal with something like Medjed near us._

_We’re missing some of the key phrases needed to enter her Palace, so we’re going to do that tomorrow._

_I can only hope that this works._

As he curled up towards the foot of the bed, Morgana watched as Sumire faced Ren in her sleep, her arms wrapped tightly around him as she slept. Ren didn’t seem bothered by it, having an arm gently wrapped around Sumire as well.

“Still some ways to go, huh?” Morgana asked quietly to himself before closing his eyes and letting himself join them in sleep.


	36. Chapter 35

As his ears twitched, Morgana started to stir.

It was a quiet sound, but it was enough to wake him up as he was coming out of sleep.

Giving himself a good stretch, the cat yawned as he started to tune his hearing, turning towards the head of the bed.

Walking up, he half expected their faces to be glued to each other, something he tried to avoid seeing, but the sound he heard was different from that.

Unsure of what it could be and if he would have to avoid it in the future, Morgana made his way up.

A small sigh of relief left him when he saw it was different, as Sumire’s face was nuzzled into Ren’s chest, seemingly still asleep.

Ren seemed awake though, his hand stroking Sumire’s hair and turning his face to look at what had moved up towards him.

“Morning,” Morgana said softly, shifting paths and climbing up Ren.

“Morning,” Ren responded, turning back to Sumire as he put his attention back to her.

Feeling somewhat left out, Morgana climbed further up Ren’s shoulder, balancing himself before lying down.

“I’m going back to sleep,” Morgana mewed, curling up.

Ren tried to move a hand under him, but he was too late, as Morgana was already asleep.

“What am I supposed to do when she wakes up,” he murmured quietly, but he let it go, his hand stroking the soft hair on his girlfriend’s head as she slept.

‘I could do this for a while,’ Ren thought, a small smile on his face as he looked down.

And he did, running his hand through her hair for nearly an hour before Sumire started to stir, making him stop as she slowly looked up.

“Morning,” Ren said softly, moving his hand out of Sumire’s hair.

“Morning,” she answered back, snuggling in a bit closer.

“Be careful of the wet spot on my shirt,” Ren said, making Sumire pause.

“I don’t want you to make it bigger.”

With a visible red mark on his face, Ren was quiet as he ate breakfast, Morgana snickering at him as he sat in Sumire’s lap, having eaten his canned sardines while the two of them made breakfast on opposite sides of the kitchen.

“What are you laughing about,” Ren said, looking at the cat as he continued to eat his cold breakfast.

“Oh, nothing. I was just wondering how much better I could do if it was me and Lady Ann in that situation,” Morgana grinned, looking up at Sumire, ignoring him as she continued with her warm meal.

“One who is as gentlemanly as me would never dare say such a thing to a lady,” the cat continued, nose up as he looked for confirmation.

“Yeah, because you would be the one drooling on her.”

Turning to look at Ren, Morgana gave him a glare, ignoring the faint tremor he felt as Sumire tried to suppress a giggle.

“At least I wouldn’t bring attention to it,” he huffed, adjusting himself in Sumire’s lap as she put her bowl down, moving on to the food on her plate.

Once breakfast was done and Sumire prepared to leave for practice, she watched as Ren and Morgana practiced moving the bag from Ren’s pits to his shoulder.

“Do you have to practice it that much?” she asked, fascinated at the rhythm the two of them had started to develop.

“Well, it’s been a while since we’ve done this,” Ren said, looking at Morgana, who gave him a nod, sliding into the bag one last time before poking his head out.

“It was kind of rough having to carry him around when we started,” he continued, “Needing to get him to put his head back into the bag when teachers were around, it took us a while before we figured everything out.”

“Is that so,” Sumire answered, making her way to the door with Ren right behind her.

“Yep,” Ren said, following her out the door.

“See you at dinner,” he said, before leaning in for a kiss, running as soon as his lips touched her cheek.

With some bags in hand, Ren walked out of a pet store as Morgana grumbled in his ear.

“Why do I have to deal with this,” he said, looking at the bag of cat food with disgust in his eyes, Ren shrugging his shoulders.

“It could be cheaper to just give you scraps and not have her parents question why you get cat-sized meals,” Ren said, looking back at the cat.

‘Proper meals afterwards would be fine,’ Morgana mumbled under his breath, but he didn’t say any more, knowing that it was a losing argument if he took it to Sumire, who was still hiding her Thief past from her parents.

As they continued to walk, Ren walked right past the ticket gate, making Morgana look back.

“Are we not going back yet?” he asked, looking in surprise as Ren entered the mall beside the station, looking at the signs as he went up a flight of stairs.

“There’s a certain book I want to find,” Ren responded, watching the signs as he turned, looking up to see if it was the right store.

“Couldn’t you get it online?” Morgana asked, ducking down a bit as some eyes turned to Ren, making his way down the aisles.

“Even if I did, I don’t have their address for delivery,” Ren said, turning down an aisle and slowing down.

Glancing around, Morgana pushed up as he looked over Ren’s shoulders, glancing between his phone and the shelves.

“And I want to start reading as soon as possible, make up for the time I forgot about it,” he finished as he pulled the book off the shelf, looking to see if it was the right one.

“Is it that important for you?” Morgana asked, unable to look at the title as Ren put it back on the shelf, ‘wrong one,’ leaving his lips.

“It would be nice to do so. I need to find a way to keep up with her physically since I’ll need way more training with gymnastics than what’s reasonable.”

“So you’re solution is?” Morgana asked as Ren seemed to have found his book.

“I’m gonna learn how to swim for sport.”


	37. Chapter 36

When she walked in the apartment, it was somewhat surprising to Sumire to see how Ren was sprawled across the couch, book over his head as he read.

What seemed even stranger was the fact that Morgana was comfortably curled up on his chest, who twitched his ears upon noticing that Sumire had come back.

“I’m back,” she said, making Morgana leave Ren and make his way towards Sumire, giving her legs a brief rub.

“Welcome back,” he mewed, letting himself be picked up as Sumire turned to look at Ren.

“Surprising, isn’t?” Morgana said, looking up at Sumire, who gave Ren a poke, to which he didn’t react at all.

“When it was just the two of us and he needed to do some reading at night, it wasn’t strange for him to be sprawled out like that on his bed,” he continued, jumping onto Ren’s stomach.

He didn’t flinch.

“The only way to get him to respond at this point was…”

“You’re in the way,” Ren interrupted, looking at Morgana as his head came between him and the book.

“Sumire’s back,” Morgana responded, slide out from under the book as Ren lowered it and looked to the side.

“Oh, welcome back.”

“How was today?” he asked, sitting upright as he moved to one side of the couch, leaving room if Sumire wanted to take a seat.

“Same as usual,” she answered, sliding next to Ren as he put the book to the side, turning his attention to her.

“Which means?” he asked, leaning in on her.

“Nothing went wrong,” she answered, pushing back a bit.

“That’s always good to hear,” Ren answered, pulling back all of his strength so that Sumire kept going.

Surprised with the lack of resistance, Sumire let out an ‘eep,’ continuing to move and finding her head resting on Ren’s lap.

With a satisfied grin on his face, Ren put a hand down and started to pet her, running his hand through her hair as he did in the morning.

“The trap has been sprung.”

With a pout, Sumire looked up at Ren, but did nothing, letting the soft feeling of his petting lull her into a relaxed state.

“Why do you have to be so good at this,” she mumbled, turning away as she felt Morgana jump up onto her, before jumping off to the back of the couch.

“Three years of owning a cat does that to a man,” Ren said, turning to face Morgana who glared at him.

“Don’t say that while looking at me,” Morgana growled, to which Ren only laughed, reaching a hand out to give him chin scritches.

“Wha, no fair!” Morgana mewed, but it was too late; he had succumbed to the scritches, leaning into the touch.

Ren smiled as leaned back himself, looking up at the ceiling as Morgana purred, filling the room with his enjoyment.

The moment was quickly shattered when the door opened, making Ren turn his head and freeze at what he saw.

As he sat in the corner of Sumire’s room, Ren made sure that Morgana was sitting out of the way of the door in case it opened as he rubbed small clumps of the cat’s fur into balls.

“Does this seem to be a bit of overkill?” Morgana asked, turning to look at Sumire.

“Well, it’s my mom, and well,” she trailed off, trying to hide her thoughts as she looked back at Ren.

When Ayako had walked in, she was wearing a mask and some goggles, a hand rising towards where her lips would be when she noticed that Ren was looking at her.

It didn’t take more than a second for him to immediately slide out from the couch, picking up Morgana and carrying him like a cross to a vampire as he moved away from her.

“And after the last time she managed to get solo time with him, I think I’m more on Ren’s side this time.”

Disappointment crossed Morgana’s face, as if he couldn’t believe that this was what the mighty leader of the Phantom Thieves had been reduced to.

He looked like he was about to say something, but the glow in Ren’s eyes made him stop, though the looks of tension between theme were starting to push against Sumire.

“How about you read some more of your entries,” she said, trying to take the tension out of the room.

Quick to his feet, Ren got up and made his way to the bed, waiting for Sumire to pass him the laptop.

  * _July 25 th, 20XX_



_Well, we managed to get into Futaba’s Palace._

_And it’s rather sad, now that I’ve had time to think about it and take in what I saw._

_Her Palace is a massive pyramid in the desert and the fact that distortions reflect how she sees the world is telling enough._

_She wants to die in there._

_What’s weird is that she also didn’t see us as a threat when we got in. We were still dressed as we were when we entered the Palace. Seeing that she had left us alone, we were able to enter the Palace and got in far as we could tell, but then we encountered her Shadow._

_She didn’t seem happy that we were there, and tried to kick us out of the tomb, dropping a rock on us and forcing us out of her Palace._

_Since we’re still not sure what will happen if we press on, we called it a day._

“Was it that hard to get inside?” Sumire asked, leaning on Ren’s shoulder a bit, hoping that it would keep him from thinking about her mother.

“Oh, it gets harder.”

  * _July 26 th, 20XX_



_I can still feel the sand in my pants._

_We tried to enter the Palace again today, and it went as well as yesterday._

_The path to the Treasure was completely blocked off, and there didn’t seem to be a separate way to enter._

_But when we tried to leave, Futaba’s Shadow called out to us._

_She said that if we managed to find and return something that was stolen from the Palace, that she would give us a new way in._

_Since we didn’t have much more than that to go from, we tried to find what else we could find. It was only a Shadow who stole a map, so we beat it and brought it back to the Palace._

_Upon showing that we retrieved the map, she dropped us into a trap that was a river of quicksand towards the bottom of a pit._

_Once we got out of the sand, we had to climb our way out towards the surface, and we spotted a way in deeper as we left._

_But everyone’s movement is off with all the sand in our clothes, so we’re calling it a day._


	38. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized it once I started to write this chapter, but the boss fight is coming up, and I don't have enough notes to carry on after that, so one chapter this week as I take notes and continue a P4G playthrough I started but stopped once school started. Maybe a chapter next week after the boss fight is uploaded.

Taking his eyes off of the screen, Ren looked and saw that Morgana had left his position near the door and was sitting in Sumire’s lap, getting gentle pats.

“What?” Morgana asked once he felt’s Ren’s gaze, looking back at him.

There was a sudden look of discomfort on Ren’s face once he realized that his first line of defense against Ayako was away from the door and that there was little he could do to put him back there now that he was sitting in Sumire’s lap.

“You want to say something?”

“Nothing,” Ren responded quickly, looking back at the screen.

I’ll continue.”

  * _July 28 th, 20XX_



_To be honest, I’m somewhat worried about tomorrow._

_We managed to get as far as we could in the Palace, taking only two days with some new items that popped up in my pocket._

_They’re quite useful, letting us fight on without needing to use as many items to recover our mental strength. Though I do wonder if something else is really at play here._

_Items like these would’ve been helpful to everyone else when basic spells were more tiring, yet they only now showed up._

_I hope I reach a point where I can ask the twins and they won’t yell at me and threaten to remove everything I have._

_I don’t want to know if they have that power or not, so I’ll just bury those thoughts for now._

_More importantly, Futaba’s Palace shows how much damage she has taken for being blamed for her mother’s death._

_To advance, we had to rearrange some murals that we found showing certain scenes, and it was certainly upsetting if you think about it for a kid._

_It started with ~~REDACTED~~ , _

There was a pause as Ren scrolled through the rest of the entry, looking to see what was cut out.

“More edits, huh?” Morgana asked after Ren didn’t respond, looking back and giving a nod.

“I’ll read what I can, then we can go over the parts that she cut out,” Ren said, looking at Sumire to see if she was good with that.

She nodded.

“Let’s see… That’s edited, that’s edited,” Ren murmured under his breath, looking at the file.

“Here we go.”

_After we had rearranged the final mural, the last path leading to the Treasure was all that was left._

_And it was blocked._

_We can’t advance any further for now._

_Morgana says he has an idea of what in the real world may be blocking us from going forward, so we’ll have to count on him to be right._

_I just hope he is, because at this rate, she sounds suicidal._

Putting the computer down and looking at Sumire, Ren looked down at Morgana again as he reached out to pick him up.

“Use that mind of yours and help me tell the story,” Ren said, as Morgana let out a cry of protest, but stopped once he was in Ren’s lap, knowing that he wasn’t getting out of this.

“There were three murals, I guess as I put them,” Ren said, with Morgana nodding in confirmation.

“The first one was the most upsetting one to me, where a group of birdmen in suits presented Futaba with her mother’s suicide note.”

Feeling the pause, Ren looked down at Morgana, giving him a look as if he was already going down the wrong path.

“Right, you still don’t know much about ancient Egypt, do you,” Ren smirked, making Morgana look away.

“I-I do,” Morgana said, embarrassment evident in his voice. “I-it’s just taking me a moment to remember.”

“Regardless, that was the first one. It didn’t seem like much at first, but I got the impression that it was much worse later,” Ren said.

“Though I can’t say I remember why I started to think that, that was the trigger for all of Futaba’s upsetting memories.”

Sumire took it all in silence, mind trying to process what sort of upsetting thoughts being blamed for her mother’s death would come to her.

She reached a hand out, to which Ren took and gave a gentle squeeze.

“The second one was of her mother leaping in front of the car, with accompanying voices saying that she killed her,” Morgana continued, looking at Sumire who turned to look at him.

“Voices?”

“Right, there were voices,” Ren said, pulling Sumire in a bit closer.

“After every mural, there were a ton of voices screaming from a distance that Futaba had done it, and the closer we got to the end, the louder those voices became.”

There was a silence in the room, while Sumire tried to take everything in, looking at Ren and Morgana.

“Do, do you think I would’ve ended up like Futaba?” she eventually asked, making the two of them pause.

“You mean having a Palace?” Morgana asked.

She nodded.

“It could’ve happened, but unlike her, you still had family,” Morgana said, looking up at Ren as he waited for him to look down.

When he did glance down, Ren saw the look in the cat’s eyes and took the hint, moving Morgana from his lap and pulled Sumire into his place, giving her a hug as she looked back at him.

“Wakaba was all she had, and being listed as the cause of death on a suicide note? Her extended family heard about it and wouldn’t take her in.”

Tensing up, Sumire flinched when Morgana leapt into her lap, looking down at him as he adjusted himself to look up.

“And the last one showed how much damage it did to be blamed for her death; by having a scene of Futaba being a child and wanting attention, only to be yelled at, with her mother’s back facing her,” the cat finished, watching as Sumire looked down, her eyes hazed over as she thought.

“I, I’m going to talk with mom real quick,” she eventually said, getting out of Ren’s lap and heading out the door.

As the hidden night lights glowed behind the curtain, Ren and Morgana were still awake as Sumire was firmly nestled into Ren’s side, the slow and gentle strokes to her hair, being the guide to her sleep.

“Maybe we should’ve spaced out Futaba’s Palace,” Morgana said as he sat on Ren’s shoulder, watching as Ren stopped, turning to look at him.

“Maybe, but she wants to know more about us,” he said, eying the foot of the bed.

“Stories as such can only convey so much, but to read something when it happened the same day or a bit later.”

“I get it,” Morgana said, making his way down.

“Goodnight.”

“Night.”


	39. Chapter 38

Eyes slowly opening, Sumire awoke to Ren looking down at her, a gentle smile on his face as her eyes started to focus.

“Morning,” he said, leaning in to press their heads together.

“Morning,” Sumire responded, wondering where this affection came from but didn’t question it as their noses rubbed against each other.

They stayed like that for a few moments, Sumire letting Ren press in and give her a few kisses, but they just kept their distance as their foreheads and noses made most of the contact.

“Where’s Morgana?” Sumire eventually asked, backing up a bit as she rose, Ren following a few seconds later.

“By the door,” said ‘cat’ answered, pulling Sumire’s attention to him. “Your mother came in.”

Thinking about what Morgana said, Sumire panicked and looked down at her body before turning to Ren, who seemed rather calm about the whole thing, not freaking out over the fact that Ayako had come in again.

“Did we do something?” Sumire asked as she blushed, suddenly worried that something happened and she didn’t remember it.

“She thinks we did,” Ren said, reaching a hand out and gently stroking her hair in an attempt to keep her calm. “Your little ‘thank you Mom’ speech made her think that you were going to climb the staircase to adulthood, and just to make sure it happened…”

Practically glowing, Sumire turned around to bury her face into a pillow, not wanting to think of the things that her mother would say later.

“Has she left yet?” Sumire asked, looking up at Ren while Morgana made his way over to the bed.

“Nope,” Morgana said, dashing any hope for a calm morning. “Today is Sunday, so she’s taking a day off.”

As he checked the morning paper, Shinichi looked over at his wife as she sat a good 2 meters away from the cat, sitting to cut her off from the table as Ren and Sumire quietly ate their breakfast.

“What did you do this time?” Shinichi asked, a light sigh leaving his lips as he glanced at his watch, wondering if he wanted to listen to the whole story.

“Well, you know how Sumire is when talking with us,” Ayako said, her mischievous grin turning to face her husband. “She rarely talks to us about these things anymore now that she has friends, but she came and talked to me last night.”

“So?” Shinichi asked, confusion in his voice as he looked at her. “She talked to me as well.”

“Well, there are certain things that a girl can only ask their mother about,” Ayako grinned, with Shinichi hearing the very audible sound of a chair sliding against the floor.

“Didn’t you miss an episode of your drama?” Shinichi asked, trying to move the subject away from what he knew he shouldn’t be talking about with the pair in earshot, the sounds of them rushing to the kitchen and out the door giving them a chance to get out.

“Oh, I can always record it to watch it later,” she grinned, as worry filled Shinichi’s gut for his daughter. “Why watch that when I have something so much better at home?”

As they walked towards the station, Ren and Sumire walked side by side as Morgana kept his head poking out towards the front, looking up as the pair’s hands kept reaching for each other, but they couldn’t commit to it.

“I’m starting to understand why she’s able to draw such a reaction out of the two of you,” he said, drawing their attention as they turned, taking a short cut away from the main road. “I just haven’t seen her go far enough to use me as a weapon.”

“You’ve been keeping her at bay,” Ren said, looking down as he gave him a quick scratch. “I’m sure that if she finds a better solution than mask and goggles, we’ll start seeing her in force again.”

“Don’t say that,” Sumire said, looking at him as she grabbed his hand, making him look at her.

“We’ll be fine,” Ren said, a gentle smile as he stopped walking, giving her a quick kiss. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

Letting them enjoy their moment, Morgana briefly ducked his head into the bag when he heard that someone was walking by them.

“Oh, how adorable,” a quiet voice said, walking away from them after a few seconds of observing.

“Thing they’re scouting the path back?” a second voice said, perking Morgana’s interest as he slightly poked his head out to hear better.

“That’s really cute,” the first voice said, fading away as they walked off.

Putting his head even further out, Morgana glanced around and let out a small snicker, pulling Ren and Sumire’s attention.

“Look at where you guys stopped.”

Hiding their faces behind cups of coffee, Ren and Sumire were trying to ignore the laughter coming from the other side of the counter, as the barista was leaning on her knees for support.

“Oh, that’s perfect,” she laughed, her long black hair speckled with orange from a sloppy dye job swinging with her body as she took her glasses off to wipe her eyes.

“Did I make a mistake somewhere?” Sojiro grumbled in the kitchen, wishing that he didn’t have to hear what he just heard as he pulled a cigarette out.

“You did as well as you could,” Morgana said, though it went largely ignored due to the laughter and Sojiro unable to understand him.

“So, you love birds planning on visiting?” the barista asked, grinning as she put her glasses back on.

“Maybe if you pay for it,” Ren said, hoping that it would end the conversation then and there, ignoring the look of betrayal on Sumire’s face.

“Done,” the barista said, turning to look at Sojiro as Sumire’s face turned to horror while Ren looked on in shock.

“How much work is 20 thousand yen?” she asked, a wry grin on her face as Sojiro looked down at the floor, palm resting against his forehead.

“Futaba, I’m not giving you that much so that you can send your friends to a love hotel,” he sighed as he looked at Ren, disappointment in his eyes.

“I thought you knew better.”

“I thought she wouldn’t pay,” Ren said, finishing his cup and looking at Futaba, who took it, waiting for Sumire to finish so that she could wash them.

“Still, I’m surprised that you’re working.”

“And whose fault would that be?” Futaba answered, taking Sumire’s cup as she made her way to the sink.

“I can’t afford to go to a computer café every day, so I needed something to do.”

“Ah, so you’re still trying to spy on us?” Ren asked, a small smile fighting to form on his lips.

“Oh, shove it,” Futaba said, her tongue reflecting in the mirror as she stuck it out, the dishes clinking a bit as looked down at them.


	40. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm busy this weekend, so just this.  
> It's a bit short.  
> Though I may pump out a one-shot, maybe on like Wednesday to get an idea out of my head.

Watching the pair leave the café, Morgana walked behind the counter, rubbing Futaba’s legs a bit as she looked down.

“You have something to say?” she asked, looking at the cat.

“Nothing really,” Morgana answered, stopping as he looked for a place to jump. “Something about being here makes me calm.”

“Well, my leg is not a scratching post, especially since I’m wearing shorts,” Futaba said, giving Sojiro a quick glance. “Though he’s wearing long pants, so I’m sure he can take it.”

“These pants were around 3 thousand yen.”

“But, compared to band-aids, I guess my leg is fine,” Futaba said, looking down at Morgana as he gave her a concerned look.

“Are you okay?” he asked, moving out of the back and towards the front, jumping up to a seat.

“You’ve been going on about money,” Morgana finished, propping his forelimbs onto the counter to be a bit higher.

“I wouldn’t be, but computer cafes cost money,” Futaba responded, making Morgana shake his head.

“Wow, you really are addicted,” he sighed before feeling his cheeks being pinched.

‘Wha, what are you?’ Morgana tried to ask, but Futaba heard more of a ‘Fa, Fah re ya?’

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who’s mind runs on fatty tuna and Ann,” she responded, letting go of his cheeks after a few seconds.

“It does not,” Morgana whined, rubbing his cheeks, looking at Futaba for a few seconds before the two of them started to laugh, as a chuckle left Sojiro’s lips.

“Some things never change, huh?” he asked, though he was thoroughly ignored as the two of them continued to talk.

“So, how has life been on the other side, Mona?” Futaba asked, leaning on the counter to reach eye level with Morgana.

“Not what I expected,” Morgana said, lowering his face as he adjusted his footing as Futaba raised an eyebrow. “Especially after the things that Ren has said about Sumire’s mom.”

“Oh?” Futaba asked, a predatory grin flashing on her face, disappearing by the time Morgana looked up, but Sojiro caught it, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t want to hear any of this stuff,” he said, throwing the cigarette he was smoking out, reaching for a second one as he walked out the door. “I’ll be back in ten minutes, and if you’re not done by then, that's tough.”

“That’s more than enough,” Futaba grinned, as Morgana paused, realizing what he had done.

A sudden shiver ran down Ren’s spine, startling Sumire as she turned to look at him, wondering what would’ve made him flinch.

“Ren?” she asked, making him quickly turn to face her.

“It’s nothing,” he said, a steady grin on his face.

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Sumire wasn’t sold on it, but she let it go, as she didn’t want anything else to make this day any more awkward before the speakers started to call that they were about to reach their stop.

Getting up, they waited by the doors, getting out of the car and onto the platform, going up the escalators as they thought a bit of what they wanted to do.

“So, anywhere you want to go first?” Ren asked once they got to the top, standing against a wall to get out of the way of foot traffic.

“Ah, I haven’t really thought about it,” Sumire said as she joined him against the wall, looking towards her feet as she blushed. “All sorts of things happened this morning, and I’m not sure of what to do.”

Nodding along, Ren looked into the crowd, a small smile on his face as a certain painter came to mind.

“Ren?” Sumire asked, making him realize where he was.

“Sorry,” he chuckled, a smile growing a bit as he turned to Sumire. “Just remembering how Yusuke was when we met down here,”

“If you’re unsure of where to go, how about Inokashira park? It’s been a while since we’ve gone.”

“Sure,” Sumire said, leaving the wall as they made their way to the ticket gate, passes at the ready as they walked out.

Stretching her arms as she sat down, Sumire took the bottle of water from Ren and took a sip, giving it back to Ren who had a small smile on his face, looking back at her as he put the water in his bag.

“What?” she asked, adjusting her glasses as she leveled them out, having them slide a bit as she stretched.

“Nothing,” Ren responded, though his grin said otherwise.

“You don’t smile this much when it’s nothing,” Sumire said, leaning in to get closer to his face. “I haven’t been going out with you for this long and not learn by now.”

With a look on his face that screamed how proud he was, Ren just chuckled and leaned in, glasses frames meeting in the middle.

“Maybe thinking about how you can drink from the same bottle and not get flustered anymore,” he said, to which Sumire giggled.

“Oh,” she responded, leaning back with a smile of her own. “Maybe you’re the one who’s embarrassed more if you’re the one bringing it up.”

With a laugh, Ren just gave her a quick peck on the cheek and leaned back, a grin on his face as he reached an arm around her.

“Maybe I just remembered how cute you were the last time we were here and how flustered you got,” Ren said, leaning in as they let the sound of others pass by.


	41. Chapter 40

As they sat there in silence leaning against each other as they sat on the bench, enjoying each other’s company, Ren was suddenly feeling glad that they were in a somewhat secluded part of the park.

While it was true that he was the one who loved to tease Sumire about all the small things that would make her blush, it was a weekend, and weekends meant that a certain someone would be prowling Tokyo, and seeing the two of them like this it was practically begging for him to show up. While he didn’t have anything against him, he was someone who managed to confuse Ren, no matter how much time they spent together. And that was one thing he didn’t like; being unable to follow along with what others were doing or saying and the risk of making a fool of himself as a result. And the time apart certainly didn’t help with it since he had changed.

At least if he did show up, other people wouldn’t notice too much, and his energetic shouts might keep them away anyway.

Chuckling as he thought about it, Ren noticed that Sumire was looking at him and that she had the same worried look on her face.

“Sorry,” he answered, shaking his head leaned into Sumire a bit more. “Yusuke keeps coming to mind for some reason, and I’m somewhat uneasy about the chaos he can sow.”

“Ah,” Sumire nodded, pushing back against Ren as she thought a bit of where they were.

They sat there for a few minutes more before she turned to look at him.

“Want to go somewhere else?”

Ren watched as Sumire stood by his side with a gentle grin, the blue light reflecting off her glasses as she looked, a smile visible on her face when she looked at him.

“Still love watching this?” he asked, knowing the answer that was going to follow.

“Mhm,” she nodded, looking back at him as she started to walk away, making her way over to the larger tank behind them.

“But it’s nothing compared to the memories we have from down there,” she grinned, as Ren chuckled, lining up with her as they looked down at the 500-ton tank, trying to see if they could spot the people below through all the fish.

Smiling as he looked down with her, Ren suddenly felt something going between him and Sumire.

“Caroline,” Ren started, an automatic response before even looking down, pausing at the thought why the name came to him so naturally, when there was a girl with brown hair wedged between him and Sumire, looking at the fishes inside.

“What?” Sumire asked, looking at Ren with a questioning look, as the girl seemed to realize where she was.

“Tora,” a different voice called out, making Ren slightly freeze while Sumire turned to look at the voice, the girl between them noticing that she was caught.

“Ah, Ren. Sumire. Hello,” the voice said, making Ren chuckle as he turned around, the one person he wanted to avoid that day making his presence known.

“Hello, Yusuke-senpai.”

As they sat, waiting for the dolphin show to start, Ren watched as the girl sitting next to Yusuke watched the goings-on on the stage, seeing hoops and balls coming into her line of sight and excitedly thinking about what could happen with them, while he got his sketchbook out and ready.

“So, what brings you here?” Ren asked once it seemed that Yusuke was all set, looking at his watch to see how much time was left.

“Well, Kawanabe asked me to look after his granddaughter today and said go to Maxwell Aqua Park,” he started, looking to see if said girl was still by in her seat, which she was. “And unfortunately, someone has rented out the entire thing for a wedding.”

“Whew,” Ren whistled as the lights started to dim, with Tora letting her excitement be known.

“So we came here instead. Though it’s a shame; I would’ve loved to sketch something in the jellyfish section, especially if you two were there as models for me.”

“Is that so,” Sumire answered as the show started, staying quiet as Tora’s screams were joined by other kids, with a shared look of ‘lets talk later’ crossing everyone’s eyes, with Yusuke taking the chance to take his sketchbook out and started to draw.

About five minutes into the show, Ren looked around and noticed that no one was really paying attention to them, as all eyes were focused on the dolphin show, making him prompt a mischievous grin.

Leaning into her, Ren got close to Sumire’s ear and gently whispered, ‘Sumi,’ startling her as she looked at him.

“Ren?”

“No one’s watching,” he started, getting closer to her face. “Want a kiss?”

It took a moment, but Sumire started to blush, burying her face in her hands.

“Wh-why now?” she asked, looking around to see if anyone was actually watching, hoping that it could get her out of it.

“Practice run,” Ren said, grinning as he got a bit closer still. “The future may only give us chances to do it in scenarios like this, may as well get used to it.”

“Wha-what sort of scenario would that be?” Sumire asked, trying to get him to stop.

“The stands, the locker room before you go out,” Ren said, his grin still there. “You’re the one who’s dictating where we go.”

Trying to think of a retort, Sumire looked around again, trying to find anyone who would look like they were watching them, but when she couldn’t.

“M-maybe later,” she answered, looking away as she held her blush.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Ren grinned, taking a hand and grabbing one of Sumire’s.

Half an hour had passed once the show was over, and Yusuke was walking out with a rather satisfied look.

“Ah, the beauty of creatures designed to live in the water,” he started, thinking off the things that he wanted to say.

“Stop,” Tora interrupted him, making Ren and Sumire look at her.

“You talk too long after things like that. It’s annoying,” she said, as Ren snorted, trying to stop himself from laughing.

“I want to go to the tunnel,” Tora continued, dragging Yusuke away as he looked back, smiling somewhat reluctantly as his goodbye, before turning back to Tora and following her to the stairs that lead to the tunnel.

“Wow,” Ren said, a small smile on his face as he looked at Yusuke disappear into the crowd.

“That really reminds me of my outings with the twins,” he said, as Sumire looked at him, as if she wanted to hear a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering, yes, there is a place called the Maxwell Aqua Park. It's located in the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, and it seems super cool. Especially the jellyfish part.  
> As I was writing this, I was trying to figure out if the scenes that we see in-game were in Maxwell or were in the Shinagawa Aquarium, and came to the conclusion that it's in neither of them.


	42. Chapter 41

“Which story do you want me to start with?” Ren asked as they made their way down the stairs, the tunnel coming into sight.

“How would I know to answer that,” Sumire chuckled, walking into the tunnel with Ren shortly behind her.

“True,” he said, reaching a hand out. “It’s getting a bit more crowded.”

Taking the hand, Sumire smiled as a ray swam overhead, both of them pausing to glance up at the sudden shadow passing.

“They might come up again in the entries, but I’ll list off all the things that they made me do,” Ren said once they started to walk again.

“We did the burgers, but there was also a confessional, here at the aquarium, a gym, maid café…”

“Maid café?” Sumire asked, pulling her attention.

“Yep,” Ren nodded, looking ahead as more fish swam over. “I don’t know where they heard it from, but they seemed like they wanted to go, so I had to find one first where they could go.”

“Did you really have to find one?” Sumire asked, making Ren laugh as he gave her a peck on the cheek.

“Do you think I would go to a maid café on my own back then?” Ren asked, giving a quick bow to the people who turned to face him from his laugh. “It was perhaps one of the strangest experiences I had, trying to think if the place I went to at that hour would be fine for them.”

“Not to mention how awkward I felt in there,” Ren said as they turned the corner, noticing that there was a familiar head ahead of them.

“Isn’t that Yusuke?” he asked, making Sumire follow his line of sight.

“It is,” Sumire said, noticing the somewhat troubled look on his face when he heard his name being called.

“Oh, hello again,” Yusuke said, as Tora came into view as they got closer, her eyes suddenly sparkling.

“What’s got you stuck here?” Ren asked, to which Yusuke just shook his head.

“About that,” he said, looking down at Tora, her excitement even more visible. “After we entered the tunnel, she asked me who you guys were, and when I said that you were my friends and on a date.”

With an apologetic look on his face, Yusuke looked at them before falling to the floor in a _dogeza_.

“Let us follow you through the aquarium so that she can observe a ‘grown-up' date!”

“Ah, get up,” Ren said, pulling Yusuke up from the floor as people looked to see what the commotion was.

“Did you have to do that?” Sumire asked as people eventually looked away; the embarrassed looks on her face letting the crowd know that they were just as unaware that Yusuke was going to do that.

“Yes,” Yusuke said as he looked at Tora, her grin saying everything that it needed to. “She refused to let me say no for an answer, and I can’t say much to Kawanabe being the kind of grandfather that he is.”

“I get it,” Ren said, taking Sumire’s hand again while she blushed, the thought of being observed making her a bit nervous.

“Why does she want to see it though?”

Before Yusuke could even answer, Tora walked forward and, with all the confidence that she could, said, “Mama says that she’s never seen a couple like she does in her dramas, so I’m gonna find one.”

Letting the declaration sit for a while, Ren and Sumire looked at each other, messing with the tips of their hair.

“Should we?” Ren asked, letting the question sit even longer while Tora’s gaze focused hard on Sumire, knowing who she had to appease.

“Can you stay three meters back?” Sumire asked, to which Tora smiled, falling in line with Yusuke.

“You owe us,” Ren said, to which Yusuke nodded as Tora’s grinned widened. “I’ll let Kawanabe know.”

“Stories will have to come later,” Ren said as he looked at Sumire, pressing their foreheads together as Tora giggled.

As they walked out of the tunnel and towards the jellyfish exhibit, Ren and Sumire kept one eye out behind them as Yusuke did his best and tried to keep Tora from getting to close and interrupt them, for which they were certainly grateful.

“Think there’s anything we could do to satisfy her faster?” Ren asked as they turned a corner, looking back again as Sumire thought about what they could do.

“Is there?” she asked back, tilting her head as it touched his shoulders.

As they pondered for a moment, Sumire felt Ren grip her hand. Wondering what it could be, she turned to look at him.

But he wasn’t facing her.

“Ren?” Sumire asked when he wasn’t looking at her, 

“Hm?”

“You just squeezed my hand. Did something happen?”

“Oh,” he said, looking back for a second.

“Sorry,” he said, looking back at Sumire. “I guess I’m a bit more nervous than I expected.”

Looking at him, Sumire just stood there for a moment before she just giggled, making Ren blush as he looked down.

“You can ask if we want to make out when no one’s watching, but this is too much?”

Looking away from where Yusuke and Tora were watching, Ren tried to hide his blush again, to which Sumire got on her toes and gave him a quick peck.

“Let’s wrap this date up and go home.”

As they walked out of the exit, Ren put his phone back into his pocket as he sent Yusuke an apology, figuring that he was going to have a busy rest of the day dealing with Tora.

“Hey, Sumi,” Ren asked, leaning in as they got away from the rest of the crowd.

“Hm?”

“Want to hear the rest of the story regarding my outings with the twins?”

“First thing out, and that’s what you have to say?” Sumire asked, smiling as she reached for his hand.

“Anything to get my mind off of being watch by someone who isn’t Futaba,” Ren answered, taking her hand as he left her to wonder exactly how much Futaba knew.


	43. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be busy tomorrow due to unsolicited spoopy activities, so here's the first of this week's chapters.

As they sat on a bench in the park that was next to the aquarium, Ren pulled out a bottle of water and gave it to Sumire, who eagerly took a drink after how much she was laughing.

“So after I asked the hostess to back off, they asked me what was in the pancakes, and I told them that there was poison.”

“Poison?”

“Yep. I think it was Caroline who said that it was the slave’s way of showing their rebel spirit.”

As she continued to laugh, Ren took the bottle and took a sip, smiling as he waited for Sumire to calm down.

“There’s more to that story, but talking about this made me remember my favorite outing I had with them,” Ren said once he finished his sip, looking at Sumire as she finally stopped laughing.

“You have a favorite one?” she asked, looking like she didn’t believe it.

“Of course,” Ren smiled. "Enough time let me stop thinking about how badly things could go for me and how funny they were in hindsight," he continued, leaning as if he was going to tell her his life story.

“Do you ever hear me ask Sojiro for ‘pickled gods’ whenever he forgets ‘ _fukujinzuke_ ’ for my curry?”

“What?” Sumire asked, looking at Ren like he was crazy.

“You haven’t?” Ren asked, grinning as he reveled in the chance to tell such a story.

“So, how do I want to describe this…

_It happened when I went into hiding._

_But being who they are, they didn’t give me a chance to take it easy, and they requested that I take them to Leblanc to meet Sojiro._

_I was somewhat hesitant at first, I’d been with them enough times to know that this was just trouble, but there wasn’t much more I could do about it now that I had gone out to meet them._

_When they walked in, they started to talk about their gratitude to him for helping out with my rehabilitation. The confused look on his face when he asked me why they were with me was priceless._

_Being the kind of guy he is, Sojiro offered them some curry, and the first thing out of their mouths was comparing the visual look to sludge._

_At least Justine said the smell was good._

“Did they really compare it sludge?” Sumire asked, the shock rather evident as she looked at him.

“Mhm,” Ren nodded, his smile still present.

 _He asked them if they had never had curry to make sure, and when they asked what_ fukujinzuke _was, that was where it started to get really good._

_Instead of saying that it’s just pickled vegetables, he went into the origin of the name._

_Of course, they looked at him in disbelief._

Ren paused as he put a hand up to his lips, unable to hide his mirth at recalling the story as he bent over, laughing at the image he had inside of his own head.

“Wait, give me a second,” Ren said as the laugh escaped his lips, making Sumire somewhat concerned.

_They thought that Sojiro killed gods and used them as an ‘optional’ flavoring for the curry, and that was how he was able to keep me in check._

Now that he had gotten his punchline out, Ren freely laughed, bending over as tears streamed down his cheeks, leaving Sumire to look at him in wonder as she started to put together the image he had on his own.

_I was trying my best not to laugh in front of them because I didn't want things to go sideways in the Velvet Room, but man, the confused look on Sojiro's face._

_Never mind the fact that he was keeping me in check, not because he had the power to kill me in the Metaverse, but if he talked to the police about me being a Phantom Thief, I would most certainly be dead for real._

“Don’t,” Sumire said, grabbing his hand and making Ren laugh slow as he looked at her.

“What?” he asked, wiping a few tears away.

“Don’t talk about dying so casually.”

Pausing at the plea, Ren did his best to stop the remaining chuckles he had inside him, looking at Sumire.

“I, I may not have been myself when it happened,” she started after hesitating a bit, collecting herself as she looked down, tears starting to form under the cover of her glasses’ rims.

“Nor was I aware that you had a plan and that it was your only real option to escape, but the feelings I had suppressed and the real me were really, really terrified that you, you…” Unable to finish her thought, Sumire sat there in silence as the tears started to roll, while Ren reached out to hug her, pulling her in as she tried to finish her sentence.

“I was really terrified that you were gone,” she finished into his shoulder, her glasses pushed up on her nose as she got even closer.

“Sumi,” Ren said after a few seconds, gently rubbing the back of her head as he glared at some passersby before making them really run when he took his glasses off.

“I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up again.”

“Promise me?”

“Yeah, promise.”

As Ren stood on the train, keeping his back to the rest of the car while Sumire leaned against him, her eyes closed as she listened to his heartbeat, he thought about how he never really talked about his 'death' with Sumire. He hadn’t really thought about it too much, especially since it had never come up in conversation, but he realized that he never really heard how Sumire dealt with his supposed death.

It was an easy thing for the rest of the Thieves to bring up in conversation; a ‘hey, remember that one time we tried something stupid, and it worked’ type story more than anything, but for Sumire. Even if she found him still alive later, the fear that she had and the relief that would’ve followed it, she really was hurt by the idea that he had died.

‘Is that, why…’ Ren started to think, though it was quickly interrupted with a bump, making him adjust his footing as to not slam into Sumire.

‘Sorry that I didn’t think about that,’ Ren whispered to himself, leaning his head against hers as the speakers announced that they were about to stop at their station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fukujinzuke is assorted pickled vegetables and is named after the seven gods of fortune, or Shichifukujin. It's often red, which is why the twins say that it's been soaked in the blood of gods.


	44. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what.  
> I just wrote this one.  
> Two for one today, regular Sunday update will come Sunday.
> 
> What a terrible line.

As they walked out of Leblanc with Morgana back in tow, it wasn’t hard for the cat to know that something was wrong.

But after the four-hour grilling session that he got from Futaba, he really didn’t want to risk anything that would further upset Sumire, so he let it slide, staying silent the entire ride back to the apartment.

“Oh, sweet freedom,” Morgana declared after getting out of the bag, getting a good stretch and a quick run around the room before hopping onto the couch, curling up as he prepared for a nap.

“Was it that bad?” Ren asked in a condescending tone, looking down at the cat.

“Yeah,” Morgana answered, looking at Ren. “I understand why you want me here to deal with her mom. Just remember that Futaba is another entity you have to be careful of.”

“Eh, I’ve been with Futaba long enough to know how to deal with her antics,” Ren shrugged as he straightened out. “Future mother-in-law is something completely different.”

Blushing as she heard how matter of fact he said it, Sumire hurried over to her room first.

It was a declaration that she was not ready to hear from him. Her mother may have said it a few times but from him?

Sitting on her bed and trying to calm her blush and think about what they were going to do, Ren walked in, the door closing being her que that he walked in.

Sitting down next to her, Sumire felt Ren lean in, resting his head against hers.

“Did you not want to hear that?” he asked after a minute of silence, backing up so that he could look at her.

“No, no, that wasn’t it,” Sumire said, avoiding eye contact while Ren got in closer.

“What? What could it possibly be?” he asked, getting a bit closer.

Ren just laughed, backing up again while he looked at her as she kept avoiding eye contact.

“I know, I know, I’ll stop.”

Pouting as she looked at him, Sumire looked away and turned her back to him.

“Want me to finish the story?’

“No.”

“A new one?”

“Sure.”

Getting up to pick up her laptop, Sumire walked over to her desk and put it on his lap.

“Alright,” Ren said, opening it up 

  * _July 29 th, 20XX_



_Today was an absolute mess._

_I don’t remember too much what happened, but I almost died._

Taking a quick glance up, Ren apologized to Sumire with his eyes and looked back down.

_That and Futaba has a Persona and is currently knocked out._

_When I went to go check on her, she was just lying there in front of the house. She was knocked out, and I didn’t know what to do._

_I brought her in and got my supplier for healing items to take a look at her, and she said that Futaba probably needed a break._

_I don’t know how often Sojiro checks on her, so I told him, and he just said not to worry about it._

_I hope that she wakes up soon, I really want to see the mop get wiped against the floor online._

“You really didn’t like him back then, did you,” Sumire said as Ren paused, giving her a shrug.

“What do you want me to say?” he answered, looking at her. “Even after the fact that I spent some time with him, he was still trying to end us. Didn’t help that he tried to kill me and planned to kill everyone else as well,” Ren continued as he turned back to the screen, looking to see where he was.

A flashed a grin once he found it, unable to contain his teasing tone.

  * _July 31 st, 20XX_



_There’s something about Kasumi that draws me to her. I’m not sure what it is, exactly, but it’s there._

_But I might need to be a bit more careful._

_Despite it being summer break, she managed to get permission to use the gym for practice and wanted me to come by._

_Seeing nothing wrong with that, I did come, especially since the offer of free food was nice and that a girl was making something specifically for me._

_But man, was it rough._

“Do you remember what that was?” Ren asked as he turned to face her, giving Sumire a smile that only meant trouble.

“No,” Sumire whined, covering her face with her hands as she blushed. “Don’t remind me.”

_She said that because she didn’t know what sort of flavor I liked, she just seasoned everything one way, and since it was a flavor everyone likes, that there shouldn’t be a problem._

_And it was curry._

_It’s not bad enough that it’s all I have for breakfast every day and that a cute girl made a lunch for me for the first time._

_That wasn’t it, why I was disappointed, no, not at all._

Taking a peek once he read that, Ren smiled as he saw Sumire curled into a ball, back facing him, her rocking back and forth as she mumbled things like, ‘it was a mistake’ and ‘I would never do that now.’

_I was getting flashbacks from the park clean up, and if my stomach struggled with one bowl of soup, how was I going to fair with something that made my stomach feel uneasy._

_At least she got to enjoy everything she made, though it seemed like she regretted how she handled my meal, saying that she was going to go buy something for me._

_I told her to not worry about it and that there was always a next time._

_At least that part got her to smile._

Looking back one last time, Ren saw that Sumire had stopped rocking, but her back was still facing him, not letting him see her blushing face.

Getting up and moving to the other side, Ren looked down at her as she rolled away.

“Sumire,” he said softly, reaching an arm out and rolling her back, though she still wasn’t looking at him.

“Your glasses are going to hurt if you keep doing that,” he said, reaching for her face and pulling her hands back, leaning in as he kept his hand near and put on her cheek.

Looking at him, Sumire couldn’t hide the blush anymore, but she started to calm down a bit as he looked at her.

They maybe stayed that way for about five minutes before the kissing started.


	45. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is shorter than normal, I'll explain why at the end notes.

As the two of them broke the kiss, the last thing that they expected to hear was Morgana suddenly screaming.

Pausing at the sound, the two looked at each other when it came again.

Looking at the door, Ren got up as he reached for his shirt, passing Sumire hers as she slowly rose from the bed, as the sound of Morgana running around sounding rather distant, with the sound of someone giggling making Ren’s heart drop.

It didn’t take long before the sound of Morgana pawing at the door was heard.

“Please! Let me in!” he screamed, making Ren open the door a bit.

The door barely had to be opened for Morgana to come shooting in, flying under Sumire’s bed as she stepped off it, looking down as Ren quickly shut the door behind him, leaning against it to further reinforce it against a fear that was rapidly rising in his heart.

“Morgana?” Sumire asked, her glasses sliding down her nose as her head looked under her bed.

“Of all things,” Morgana said, shivering as his eyes focused on the wall, not even turning around to look at them.

“Morgana?” Sumire asked again, laying on her stomach as to not have to bend over.

“There was no mask,” the cat mewed, terrified more than anything as a knock came from the door.

“Sumire, Ren-kun,” a voice called, making Ren’s heart drop and Sumire pause, while Morgana seemed even more terrified than before. “Where could that cute little kitty have gone?”

Silence reigned over the room, with Ren’s breathing even coming to a stop.

“Well, if he isn’t there,” the voice said, seemingly snickering as it slowly walked away. “He’ll have to come out from somewhere eventually.”

As the footsteps faded away, Ren started to breathe again while Morgana turned his head to look at Sumire, asking with his eyes if it was clear.

She answered by sticking a hand out and reaching for him, to which Morgana scurried out and leaped into Ren’s duffel bag in the corner, his ears the only thing poking out as he settled in.

“What happened?” Ren asked as he got up from the floor, walking over to his bag.

There was no reply as Morgana buried himself deeper into the bag, with only the very tips of his ears poking out.

Silence reigned for a few moments before the life drained from Ren’s eyes, as he suddenly realizing what ‘no mask’ meant.

Unsure of what made the two of them freeze, Sumire decided to open the door and look.

Looking down the hall, Ayako was sitting on the couch in the living room, looking down at her phone. When she heard the door opening, she looked up, her usual grin on her face.

“Oya,” she said, putting her phone down and looking at Sumire. “Nice collection of markings you got there.”

Standing there in silence, Sumire started to blush fiercely as she looked down. The shirt did nothing to hide all the hickeys on her collarbone, turning to her mother, whose grin grew even wider.

“Also, Mona is the cat’s name, right?” Ayako continued, giving Sumire the same feeling of dread Ren had a moment ago. “Futaba-chan said that there’s a certain spot to scratch if I want to keep him still, but he didn’t stay.”

“Perhaps it needs a certain kind of touch,” she said with a leering grin.

It didn’t take long for Sumire to go right back into her room as Ayako continued to giggle, looking back at her phone as she sent a quick text.

Dinner was even quieter than before, as Ayako kept looking at Sumire, hiding her marks while Ren kept avoiding eye contact with both her and Shinichi, making the man sigh as he looked at his wife.

“What did you do this time?” he asked once Ren and Sumire had left and put their dishes away, giving them the courtesy of being out of the conversation.

“Oh, nothing really,” Ayako said, smiling as she got out of her seat.

“Just took some medication.”

As he closed the door behind him, Ren looked at his bag as Morgana poked his head out, looking to see if the coast was clear. Getting an old hand signal from their thieving days, the cat slowly got out and looked around before making his way to Sumire’s lap as she sat on her bed.

“You’re sitting with her?” Ren asked, betrayal in his voice as he sat down next to her, laying on his back after he got his piece at Morgana.

“You’re the more likely target," he said, yawning while he got in a short stretch. "I’m going stay where it’s safe,” Morgana answered, curling up as Sumire looked down at the cat.

There was a brief silence in the room as Ren thought about what Morgana said, while Sumire just looked between the two of them.

“What are we going to do,” he eventually said, taking the conversation elsewhere. “She clearly no longer fears your ability to trigger her allergies.”

“Does that mean you’ll send me back to Futaba?” Morgana asked, giving a brief yawn afterward.

“No, I spent money on you already. I’ll make it worth it.”

“Cat food is not spending money on me,” Morgana said firmly, poking between Sumire’s arm as she giggled, glaring at Ren. “That spending money to convince her parents that I’m a normal cat.”

Barely raising his head, Ren looked at Morgana, and the two of them stared each other down, neither one wanting to give ground.

“We think about this later,” Morgana finally said, breaking the deadlock.

“We think about this later,” Ren agreed, getting up and leaning against Sumire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get back in entry writing, but after the end of the previous chapter, I had to continue from there. And then it turned into the thing that it is now.  
> Bad explanation, I know.  
> Also, thank you to some1upoyo for your comment nearly 2 months back for reminding me that medication for pet allergies exist. I wanted to have it come up for a while, and it's finally time for a newly buffed Ayako to return and wreak mayhem.  
> But an entry chapter before that, next week.


	46. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the two of you in the comments asking where a Twilight chapter is...
> 
> BONK!!!!!
> 
> One for you...
> 
> BONK!!!!!
> 
> And one for you.
> 
> I want to advance this as much as I can before I work on another one. So just wait until I decide I can post one. Don't worry, one will come, just not now.

Breakfast was a different kind of quiet than what Sumire normally experienced as she watched Ren and Morgana sit across from each other as they sat deep in thought, no words being exchanged as they glanced at each other now and again.

It was a bit unnerving as she watched Ren eat with a serious face, something she hadn’t seen in quite a while.

Maybe the last time was when they talked about if they wanted to tell her parents that he was a Phantom Thief and that she had been involved with them in some capacity. That was about a year ago, when the two of them were given Leblanc to themselves for the night, and the topic came up during dinner.

As she got up to put her dishes away, Ren put his face in his hands as he groaned while Morgana sighed, seemingly having an epiphany between the two of them.

“Are you okay?” Sumire asked, sitting back down as she put her plates on the table.

“Yeah,” Ren said, looking at Morgana as the two of them shared a glance. “It’s just that I can only think of one solution for us to get out of this.”

“Which is?” Sumire asked, rather intrigued with what they came up with.

“Run away to Leblanc.”

There was a brief silence as Sumire looked at the two of them, first to Morgana, who gave her the response, then at Ren, who put his head back in his hands.

“What?”

“Run to Leblanc,” Morgana repeated, as Ren muttered, “I can kill a god of control and take down its usurper, but to be forced to this…”

“Boss will likely accept us,” Morgana continued as he walked towards Sumire on the table. “It’ll be a second eye on Futaba and all, but I don’t know about an extra person.”

“Can you really think of nothing?” Sumire asked, a sudden sadness in her voice as she thought of Ren moving out, unable to deal with her mother and giving her all the extra ammunition to tease and harass them.

“No,” Ren said, head still facing down. “And it’s not like it’ll be that much better if I go to Leblanc; Futaba is there, and she’s in cahoots with your mother, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll be free of it.”

As the silence carried on, Sumire briefly looked up, about to say something before looking back down, debating if she was going to finish the thought.

“I, I,” she started, pulling Ren and Morgana’s attention to her. “I’ll run with you.”

Looking at her with the sudden declaration, Sumire blushed before looking back down, fidgeting with her hands as carried on.

“I, um, if you remember,” she said, blushing as she looked from side to side. “You told me before we went to Maruki’s Palace that I have to be the one to choose my own path. And well,” Sumire held onto the final part of her thought, while Ren gave her a Joker smile.

“Wow, color me impressed,” Futaba said as the pair sat at the counter, their bags still over their shoulder as Morgana sat on the counter, stretching out while Sojiro chuckled in the corner, shaking his head while saying ‘young love,’ under his breath.

“So you’re really doing this,” Futaba said as she looked at Sumire, who slowly nodded as she took a cup of coffee, taking a sip while Ren was seemingly going over some thoughts in his head, his phone out as he jotted down a few things.

“I never thought I would do this, but I feel so excited,” Sumire said once she put her cup down, trying to hide her blush by clearing her glasses of steam from the coffee.

“You at least told her dad, right?” Futaba said, a grin on her face as she turned to look at Ren, though he was still busy thinking to look at her.

“I did,” Sumire said, rather cautiously finishing as she looked at Futaba, who pulled her phone out, sending Ren a quick text.

Sumire looked between them as Ren suddenly paused, looking at Futaba with an irritated look on his face.

“Really?” he asked, irritation in his voice while Futaba showed Ren something on her screen.

"Really," Futaba said, grinning as she started to move her finger towards a spot on her screen.

With a quick grumble, Ren pulled for his wallet, making Futaba put her phone away, and he passed her a few notes.

“Alright,” Futaba said, pumping her fists as Sojiro put a hand to his head, looking disappointed as Futaba took her apron off and passed it to Ren.

“I’m going to a computer café!”

“What was that about?” Morgana asked when the door shut as Ren sighed, putting his hands on his heads.

“She said she was going to text Ayako that we were here,” Ren said, glancing at Sojiro, who seemed rather confused as to who she was. “Her mother,” Ren clarified as he looked at Sumire, “who made us run in the first place. Who knows what would happen if she showed up here.”

“I’d get one more customer,” Sojiro said, making Morgana laugh, though it was quickly shut off by Ren and Sumire glaring at him.

“Come on,” Morgana said, hopping off the counter and onto the floor, making his way to the stairs. “Boss really looks like he needs the money with Futaba. And hey, maybe if you’re lucky, she and Futaba will keep each other busy with frequent visits.”

Sitting on his bed as he went through his bag, Ren paused as he looked at Sumire’s, resting on the couch as she had already left for practice.

“How long do you think this will last?” Morgana asked, hopping onto the bed.

“For the rest of our stay, I hope,” Ren answered as he looked back to his bag. “We only have five more nights before we go back, and I really don’t want any disruptions.”

“I know, I know,” Morgana grinned, rubbing against Ren with a teasing grin on his face.

“I’ll be downstairs, so just be dressed first if you do come down.”

Ren shook his head with a smirk and put his bag on the floor, reaching and pulling Morgana up.

“Hey, what are you?”

“You can come down once you help me look for all the bugs up there.”

As he lowered his hands and stepped off the bed, Ren smirked as Morgana gave him a hiss while looking down at him, but did his part and walked along the rafters looking to see if he could find anything while Ren got on all fours and crawled along the ground, looking under the furniture.

"Why does Futaba have to be the fire that heated the pan we jumped from?"


	47. Chapter 46

Ren sighed and looked up at the rafters while he lay on his bed, while Morgana was curled up next to him, fast asleep.

They spent maybe four hours going through the entire attic, with Sojiro even coming up to check on them to see what in the world they were doing from all the noise they were making.

But it did turn something up.

Morgana managed to find a single mic in the rafters over the stairs.

That happened about five minutes after he was put up there, making his way around and finding it. Aside from wondering how Futaba managed to get it up there, it made Ren redouble his efforts in searching for anything that Futaba may have left now that they had actually found something.

And it was the only one that they found.

That led to where he was now, laying on the bed for two hours and thinking about how if there was even a point in trying to find everything that Futaba could’ve placed.

He stayed that way until the sound of the door opening could be heard downstairs, followed by a familiar ‘Pardon me,’ making him tiredly smile and get up, halfway to the stairs before a familiar crop of red hair poked out from the handrail.

“Welcome,” Ren said, reaching for a hug, which Sumire reciprocated.

“It feels strange to hear you say that when you don’t live here,” she admitted, chuckling a bit as they pulled out of the hug, making their way to the couch.

“Is it now?” Ren asked, a grin on his face as he pulled Sumire into his lap. “I feel like it’s just going to happen more down the road.”

“Such as,” Sumire asked, settling in. “Oh, I don’t know,” Ren continued, giving her a small kiss. “We’re on the road, and I get sent back to the hotel first.”

“After you come back, you just fall asleep in my arms before I can close the door behind you,” he finished, getting a laugh out of her as she leaned in, relaxing now that she was in a comfortable position. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yep,” Ren said. “Have to be ready to welcome you back whenever.”

Sumire smiled and laughed, nuzzling his cheek and rubbed his nose.

“But still, you normally don’t ask for a hug. What happened?”

“I found a mic and spent four hours searching afterward only to find nothing,” he said, sighing as he wrapped his arms around her.

“A mic?”

“Yep.” Ren sighed, shaking his head. “I think Futaba did it just to mess with me.”

“Would she really?” Sumire asked as Morgana started to stir, stretching as he gave a yawn.

“I took her internet and computer access away for the summer; anything is fair game.”

With a nod of understanding, Sumire faced forward again while Morgana walked up to them.

“Well, good to see you two in fine spirits,” the cat said, stretching again as he sat at their feet.

“I’ll leave you two be, give you two the chance to be alone that you wanted.”

And Morgana went down the stairs, sitting at the bottom and out of their sight as they heard a customer notice him.

“We should get ready for the night first,” Ren said, letting Sumire off his lap as she made her way to her bag. “We can pick it up from there.”

Pouting as she turned to face him, Sumire grabbed her bag and put it next to the bed, opening it as she started to unpack.

“Let me help,” Ren said, joining her on the floor. Sumire nodded after a few seconds and scooted over to make room for him.

Smiling, Ren took what Sumire passed to him, placing them onto the bed as he sorted them out.

They went on like that for a few minutes before Ren felt something small and soft put into his hand. Taking a look, Ren felt a brief flush before fighting it down with a grin. Tapping Sumire on her shoulder, he asked, “Did you mean to pass this to me?” before showing it to her.

Looking at what Ren held in his hands, Sumire froze for a moment before snatching it away, blushing fiercely as she averted her eyes.

“Strawberries, huh?”

“Stop…” she whined, shoving it back into her bag and turning her back to Ren. “I’ll do this on my own.”

“Fine, fine,” Ren laughed as Sumire continued to pout, looking over her shoulder at him. “Anything you want me to do?”

Looking back into her bag, Sumire rummaged around a bit before pulling her laptop out.

“That should keep you busy,” she huffed, opening it and passing it to Ren.

“Fine by me,” he said, taking it as he looked for where they had stopped.

  * _August 5 th, 20XX_



_I’m getting somewhat worried now._

_Futaba has been out for nearly 8 days now, and nothing has happened. I asked Sojiro about it, but he doesn’t seem worried at all. I guess that’s my only real comfort at the moment._

Looking to see if Sumire would respond, Ren looked back down once he saw her continue to unpack, thinking that his pause was signifying the end of the entry.

  * _August 7 th, 20XX_



_After all the stress I’ve been feeling with Futaba, today was a nice change of pace._

_Kasumi and I went shopping together, and we bought a new pair of frames for her father. I was a model model, trying on all sorts of frames as Kasumi thought about how they looked on me._

At the mention of Kasumi, Ren paused to look at Sumire again when he noticed that she had stopped unpacking.

“Sumire?” he asked, making her jump.

“Huh. Oh, what?” she asked, looking back at him.

“You stopped unpacking, so I wondered if you were fine.”

“Oh. No, no, I’m fine,” she said, turning back to her bag. “I just finished unpacking, that’s all.”

“Okay,” Ren said, looking back down.

“I’m going to continue then.”

_Seeing someone who’s uninvolved with my current situation and can happily ask me to assist her is somewhat relieving._

_Though today came with her usual talk about her struggle with gymnastics, I think that she’s doing fine. After telling me her story about her sister, she’s seemingly more determined than before, but she sounds like she’s still struggling to direct that determination._

_After we picked a pair and walked out of the store, Kasumi told me about something her coach told her._

_She said that she was told to find out who she really was and that she needed to find a new depth of herself._

_But on the bright side, she seemed rather relaxed after some encouragement._

_What sounds even better is that she seems extra motivated, not just for her own standards, but to meet my expectations as well._

_Let’s see you reach them._


	48. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, what's this? A new chapter? On (checks watch) Wednesday?  
> Yep.  
> I got a busy schedule from Friday and the rest of the weekend, so I pumped out the first of this week's uploads (maybe).

Looking up from the screen, Ren noticed that Sumire was still sitting on the floor, sitting next to her bag as her back continued to face him.

“Sumire?”

“Ah, yes, what?” she asked, looking at him as she realized where she was.

“Are you okay?” Ren asked, getting up and walking up to her. “You’ve been awfully quiet since Kasumi came up.”

Averting her eyes, she looked down at her hands as she fiddled around with the zipper on the bag. “I, ah, I’m fine,” she started, turning around to look at Ren as he sat down next to her. “Just not used to thinking about her outside of a negative light.”

“Do you want to talk about her?” Ren asked as he leaned over her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“No, I’m fine,” Sumire said, shaking her head as some of her hair swooshed against Ren’s face, pulling his glasses off as they got a bit tangled up.

“You sure?” he asked, leaning back as running a finger through Sumire’s hair, seeing where the knot was that caught his frames.

“Yeah,” Sumire said with a small nod, staying still afterward as she felt Ren run his hands through her hair.

“If you say so,” Ren sighed, pulling his glasses out of her hair and putting them back on before resting on her again.

“Want to join me on the couch?” he asked after a few minutes of quiet.

Sumire gave a weak nod, slowly getting up when she felt a hand reach for her hip.

“Since you feel down,” Ren whispered into her ear before Sumire let out a yelp as she felt her feet come off the ground.

Looking down, Sumire saw that Ren was carrying her bridal style, doing a quick spin as he held her, making Sumire hold on a bit tighter and get closer to his body.

Ren laughed, stopping after two spins and sitting back down on the couch.

“So, shall I continue?” he asked, letting Sumire collect herself after a sudden an unexpected ride.

“S-sure,” she nodded, her breath slowly calming down as she lay on his lap.

“Alright.”

  * _August 17 th, 20XX_



_I’m starting to get really worried now._

_Futaba’s been knocked out for nearly 20 days now, and it doesn’t look like she’s going to be getting up any time soon._

_Sojiro still doesn’t seem worried, but I’m wondering how much longer I have to put up with this kind of anxiousness._

_I am worried that she’ll still be out by the time the deadline arrives and that there really will be nothing that we can do._

_Please wake up soon._

“Listening to this, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine Futaba being so inactive and quiet,” Sumire said, making Ren look down at her.

“Tell me about it,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “There are times where I wish that she would just shut down, every now and again. Make sure that I have at least one day without getting an erotic image of you from her.”

Pausing at the statement, Sumire looked at Ren with horror, fumbling to get words out while Ren just gave her a shrug.

“Just you wait,” Ren said rather matter of fact, scrolling on down. “Once she gets bored of sending them to me, get ready for all sorts of doctored images of me heading your way.”

Before she could even say anything, Ren looked back at the screen.

  * _August 19 th, 20XX_



_I think Kasumi just has some form of cosmic power on her side because she asked if I wanted to hang out with her at a time that I really needed to take my mind off of Medjed and Futaba._

_We went to a batting center and we took a few swings. It was one place I didn’t think I would end up going with a girl, much less Kasumi._

_She went in, saying that she wanted to show me a home run with confidence and that she used to do this all the time with her father._

_It went nowhere, as she proceeded to miss every swing that she took. Though the small sounds she made were rather cute._

_She took missing the balls rather hard though, like she couldn’t believe that her gymnastic slump was that bad._

Feeling a tug on his shirt, Ren looked down at Sumire.

“Was, was it that bad?” she asked rather softly, making Ren reach a hand down and rub her hair again.

“Looking back, yes,” he answered, closing his eyes as he leaned back. “You really seemed to be only held together by the thought you were Kasumi.”

Not hearing a response, Ren looked down as Sumire moved her head closer, her face looking at the screen as she tried to hide her tears from him.

“We probably need to set some time aside and talk about this some more,” Ren said, continuing to rub Sumire’s hair as he looked back at the screen.

“I’ll just read some more, okay?”

A nod.

_She seemed to perk up a bit more once I said that she could do it. And a few swings later, she managed to hit a ball._

_It wasn’t the home run that she said she was going to get, but the excitement she felt was visible._

_She even thanked me for being there, that having someone who was watching and wanted to show that she could do it energizing her._

_And she hopes that our relationship keeps going._

_All right._

_I’ll go with you._

_Show me what you got._

Feeling her shift in his lap, Ren looked down and smiled as Sumire had her face down, glasses in hand as to not press against them, the reason more than obvious. Or he thought it was, until his leg started to feel a bit wet.

“Sumire?”

No response.

“Are you okay?”

Still not getting anything, Ren tried to flip her over, but she stayed firm in her resistance. Trying to flip her over again, Ren raised the leg her face was resting on, startling her as she felt him reach an arm under her, taking his chance to roll her over.

When he saw her face, it was hard not to notice the tears running down her cheeks as she froze, looking back at him with wide eyes that had panic in them.

“Do you still not want to talk about it?” Ren asked, reaching a hand down as he brushed the tears away.

Sumire didn’t say anything and just rolled back face down.

“It’s alright,” Ren said softly, rubbing the back of her head as he felt his pants grow damper.

“It’s alright.”


	49. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another early one this week, since Age of Calamity is coming out tomorrow.  
> And just this one.  
> I want to see how everyone dies, especially with how the new weird wizard guy is related to the plot.

It was a quiet night after Ren had finished reading more entries, leaving to go do some quick shopping at the grocery store that was down the street from Leblanc to get some things for dinner. Said dinner was a vegetable stir-fry and the two of them ate on the bed, leaning against the wall as the crunch of bok choy and cabbage was the only sound, though the occasional sniff accented it now and again.

“Hey,” Ren said as he looked at Sumire, checking to see if she had eaten everything. “Do you want to get dressed while I go do the dishes real quick?”

“Sure,” she answered softly, passing her plate as Ren got up, waiting for him to leave her line of sight before she got up herself.

Walking over to her bag, Sumire looked over the two sets of pajamas she brought over. There was nothing too remarkable to say about them, just what one would expect for a girl her age; but hearing stories of Kasumi started to remind Sumire of how much her life was still being dictated by her.

What more evidence did she need than the same pajamas she had been wearing since middle school that Kasumi picked out, with pairs that she had yet to change out even though they were getting a bit tighter with the passage of time.

As she held onto the cloth, Sumire shuffled some things around before a small case came into view. Looking down at it, Sumire glanced between it and the pajamas, mind wandering as she kept a hand over the case.

She didn’t want to grab the case, thinking that she had moved on from it, that she didn’t need it as much.

Yet she still brought it, and now that Kasumi was still in her mind, she put the pajamas down and grabbed the case.

Opening it and taking her own glasses off, Sumire put on a familiar, rounded pair of glasses as she tried to calm herself down and think, just think about something other than Kasumi.

“Sumire?”

Startling her, Sumire tossed her glasses into the air as she turned to see Ren standing at the top of the stairs, hands still a little wet from doing dishes. Sumire stared at him for a few seconds before the clink of her glasses landing on the floor brought her back into the moment.

“I, um,” she fretted, looking side to side as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say.

Ren didn’t say anything, just walking up to her and getting on the floor with her.

There was some tension in the air as Sumire wait for whatever Ren was going to say, looking down.

But the words never came, as a gentle hand came to rest on her lap. Looking up, Sumire noticed that a second hand was coming to her face. Ren paused when he realized that she was looking at him, so he slowed down a bit and gently caressed her cheek.

“Let’s talk.”

Laying down on the bed, Ren waited for Sumire as she gathered her breath and steeled her nerves before getting into bed with his old glasses still on.

“Are you ready to talk?” Ren asked as he put his arms around her waist, pulling her in as his back faced the wall.

“Give me a bit,” she responded, leaning into his touch as she put her hands over his.

Giving a hum in recognition, Ren waited for a few minutes as he felt Sumire slowly start to relax in his grasp, taking the time to let her collect whatever thought she would need to work through.

“Ready?” he asked again after a few minutes, pulling Sumire in again.

“No,” Sumire said while squeezing Ren’s hands. “But I know it can’t stay like this.”

Ren gave her a light squeeze. “Then where do you want to start?”

Sumire was quiet for a few moments, squeezing Ren’s hands again as she thought about what she wanted to say.

She took a deep breath.

“It’s not your fault since it’s just how it happened,” she started, pushing in closer. “But hearing about Kasumi again and how she helped you is still something I can’t accept.”

“How so?”

Fidgeting a bit, Sumire let go of Ren’s hands as she turned around to face him.

“I know it's just a thought of mine, but I still feel that my life is still being dictated by her.”

“It’s not,” Ren said, pulling her in closer as he pressed his forehead against her.

“You say that, but I feel it sometimes,” she said softly. “The pajamas I’m wearing were the ones that she bought for me, most of my clothes are still what she bought for me, and…”

“And?” Ren asked, raising a hand up to her head as he stroked the long crimson waves flowing from it.

Sumire stayed quiet as she buried her face into Ren’s shoulder, the glasses giving a slight creak in protest.

Letting go of her hair, Ren pushed her head back a bit as he pulled his old glasses off her, smiling as she looked up at him.

“You want to keep these for a long time, right?” he said, grinning as he took his current pair off and slid his old ones back on. “You need to be gentle with them.”

Burrowing her face back into his shoulder, Sumire tried to hide the blush she felt after Ren suddenly put his old glasses back on.

Getting a small laugh out of it, Ren started to stroke her hair again, letting her calm down as she collected started to think again.

“So, what was the last thing you wanted to tell me about?”

Sumire didn’t say anything, but her grip on Ren started to tighten.

“You don’t have to say anything, but…”

“cause of her.”

“What?” Ren asked, feeling his shirt get damp as she held on tighter.

“You’re only with me because you met her.”


	50. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before we begin, I'm going on hiatus because the end of the semester is approaching, which means I have projects that require more time than I normally spend on schoolwork.  
> If I were to guess, the next chapter will come out sometime after Christmas, but exactly when, I can't say.  
> Enjoy your last chapter for a while.

With the tears flowing freely following the confession, Ren stayed quiet as Sumire started to cry into his chest, gently stroking her hair as she got in a bit closer, her grip on him tighter than normal as he felt her nails dig into him through his shirt.

But he didn’t say anything, keeping the light pain to himself as he continued to stroke her hair, waiting for her to finish crying to say his piece.

He carried on for a few minutes, unflinching in his effort to calm her before feeling the pain start to lighten and Sumire’s breathing starting to get lighter.

Thinking that she was ready to talk, Ren looked down, but instead of her looking up at him like he expected, Sumire was fast asleep.

Seeing why her grip had softened and her breathing had steadied, Ren gave a sad smile as he reached for his glasses and put them on the window sill, trying his best not to disturb Sumire as he moved.

“You must be emotionally exhausted,” Ren whispered to no one, trying to move again without disturbing his lover as he moved her pillow closer to her head.

Thinking about everything that happened that day, Ren could only shake his head as he thought about it.

From running away from home, even if it was only going to last a few days, hearing more about Kasumi again, and even opening up to him about her time as Kasumi, it made sense to him that she had used up all of her mental energy to keep up with everything that she was going through.

“You've come so far,” he said softly, leaning in for a final kiss before going to sleep himself.

Feeling something against her forehead, Sumire moved a bit as the air around her paused.

Slowly getting up, the first thing she saw was Ren’s face looking at her, a gentle smile on his face as he realized that she was up.

“Hey,” he said, leaning in for a quick kiss on her forehead. “Did I wake you?”

“No,” she said softly, trying to reciprocate the kiss with one of her own.

“Good,” Ren said, taking the kiss and getting up. “How was your first night in Leblanc?”

Pausing at the question, Sumire looked around her and realized that she wasn’t in her room. And the mattress felt rather different now that she was thinking about it.

“Oh yeah,” she said softly, looking up at Ren with a light grin. “We did that.”

“We sure did,” he answered, making his way to the stairs. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Sure,” she said, getting up.

“Great,” Ren said, heading going below the floor. “Sojiro and Futaba are here, so get changed before you come down.”

Nodding despite Ren being out of sight, Sumire walked up to her bag and looked for what she would wear for the day.

Her thoughts about Kasumi from the night started to trickle their way back into her mind, making her stop looking as she held a red skirt in her hands. Everything was still what Kasumi had bought, and while there were outfits in there that she knew Ren loved, she wanted to move away from them.

All of them.

Shaking her head at the thought, perhaps more extreme than she could actually carry out, Sumire chose a navy-blue skirt with some white flowers on the side and a white blouse. With a nervous smile on her face as she looked while giving her skirt a swirl as it swooshed around a bit.

Ren didn’t have a mirror in the attic like she did in her room, and she was somewhat nervous about going down like this.

But she wouldn’t be able to linger forever; Ren said he would make coffee for her, which meant he would come up if she took too long.

Taking a breath and gathering her thoughts, she made her way down.

“And the lady has arrived,” Futaba said with a sly grin once she saw Sumire, making her blush while Ren gave a sigh.

“How did this fair man perform last night?” Futaba followed up, making the blush even harsher as Ren giving Futaba a light smack on the back of her head.

“Ow~~” Futaba whined, glaring at Ren while he turned his attention to the coffee, getting a cup out and pouring it.

“You look great,” Ren said with a smile as he put the cup and saucer on the counter as Sumire took a seat, a soft ‘thank you’ leaving her lips as she hid her face in the cup.

“Be careful, lover boy,” Futaba glared at Ren, pulling her phone out. “Wouldn’t want to let someone know where you are.”

“You should too,” Sojiro said as he poked his head out from the kitchen. “I don’t have to pay you for any of this.”

“I’ll be more careful,” Futaba said as she hastily put her phone away, walking into the kitchen and taking a plate of curry.

“For you,” she said as she put in front of Sumire and quickly backing up, making Ren smile as he took the top of a coffee siphon off and started to boil some water in it.

“You making tea again?” Sojiro asked as he heard the glassware come off as Ren chuckled, shaking his head.

“Nothing escapes you,” Ren said, taking a packet of instant tea from his pocket and putting it in a cup, pouring the water on top.

“So I assume you’re fine without food?” Sojiro asked, to which Ren laughed.

“I can still taste curry and coffee without needing to think about it,” he said, taking a seat next to Sumire as she started to eat her curry, cup of coffee empty. “A solid year of that can do that to you.”

With a hearty laugh of his own, Sojiro chuckled as he plated up another set of curry, taking it to the counter and putting it in front of Ren. “So I lost a good customer too soon.”

There was a comfortable silence as Ren ate his plate while Sumire asked for a second one, while Futaba worked on making coffee and Sojiro stood by the stairs, watching all of it happen.

“Oh, where did the cat go?” he asked after realizing that Morgana wasn’t there.

“He’s sleeping,” Futaba said, a smirk on her face.

“I got plenty of information to work with from him last night.”


	51. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look who's back.  
> I'm not done with the project that made me leave, but since it's almost done and I needed to calm myself, here's a chapter for you.  
> Expect the next update sometime around the second week of January.

“What?” Ren asked, putting his tea down as he looked at Futaba, a smirk on her face.

“Oh, you know,” she said, leaning against the counter. “Plenty of information that I could only get from him, things I wouldn’t be able to get through your phone or computer.”

Ren locked with Futaba with icy eyes while she kept her smirk, her lips opening to show a hint of teeth as Sumire looked back and forth, trying to figure out if she should say something.

“I would give up if I were you,” Sojiro said, pulling Sumire’s attention to him as he reached into his apron pocket for his pack of cigarettes. “I know that face, he does too. It means she’s faking it.”

Letting out a laugh, Futaba got off the counter, looking at Sumire as she held a hand up to her mouth, mirroring a smile that made Ren freeze in place.

“Ah boo, Sojiro,” Futaba said, taking Sumire’s plate as she loaded it with a third portion. “Let me have some fun messing with her. She might be joining us more frequently in the near future, right, Mr. boyfriend?”

Despite wanting to see his face, Ren wasn’t looking at Futaba, muttering words about how he was going to have to be more careful about what he said around ‘that damned cat.’

“Well, I’ve had my fun for the day with these two,” Futaba said, getting a cup of coffee brewing for herself. “Enjoy whatever plans you two have.”

But she paused as she lit the flames, snickering as she looked through the glass. “Oh, wait.”

As he curled up on the couch, Morgana watched as Sumire went through some of her things, preparing herself to go to practice as the sounds of the regulars recognizing Ren came up the stairs, a few short ‘hello’s and ‘I’ve been good’s joining in.

It was rough coming into Leblanc, feeling the glaring eyes of Ren and the mirthful ones of Futaba as he entered the doors in Sojiro’s arms. It certainly didn’t help that he was feeling bad about the information that he let go.

While some of it something that she would’ve figured out on her own if she continued to monitor Ren a bit longer, some of it was stuff he should’ve kept to himself.

Not like it was his fault that those images were done a bit too well. Or the small amount of catnip she fed him while his mouth was open. Not like that had any impact on the flow of the conversation.

Shaking his head, Morgana watched as Sumire looked like she was ready to go, patting her bag down and making her way towards the stairs.

“Hey, Sumire,” he said, grabbing her attention.

“Yes?” she asked, turning around to look at him.

“Sorry in advance if something happens with Futaba.”

With a soft smile, Sumire walked over and gave him a quick chin scritch.

“I know you didn’t mean to. Ren knows that too,” she said, taking her hand away. “I just need to get used to the idea that she has the ability to learn whatever she wants from whoever she wants.”

“I guess,” Morgana said, watching as Sumire walked back to the stairs.

“I’ll take my leave now,” he heard he say a few seconds later, with a few murmurs from the customers as Morgana heard the door open, and questions about who she was being directed at Sojiro, then to Ren.

Sighing, Morgana stretched and let out a small yawn, thinking about how the next few days would play out. Maybe he should just curl up and take a nap and hope that it would make him feel better when he woke up.

“Mona.” A voice was calling him.

“Hm~,” he responded, stirring a bit.

“Morgana.” The voice called him again, making him stir a bit more.

“Mona.” Jolting awake, Morgana looked around, an expectant look in his eyes. That was a different voice.

“Lady Ann?”

“Wow, it really did work.”

Hearing the first voice, Mona focused to see Ren standing over him, putting his phone away.

Giving him a look, Morgana stretched to wake himself up, licking his paws and rubbing his ears.

“What is it?” he asked, figuring that it wasn’t going to be good.

“I’m going shopping for dinner and you’re going with me,” Ren said, presenting Morgana with a bag.

“Is it going to be about Futaba?” Morgana asked, jumping into the bag without complaint.

“What do you think?” Ren asked as he raised the bag to his shoulder, as the cat poked his head out of the back.

“I know. Just let me think about how to explain what happened.”

As she stood on the train back from practice, Sumire tried her best to calm her pounding heart. It was something she only heard in passing, but as she walked towards the ticket gate, a girl was talking with some of her friends about wanting to run away with her boyfriend, before one of them joked about how she was probably pregnant and didn’t want to tell her parents.

Sumire hurried past them when she heard the last part, blushing when she thought about what they were saying. But if she were to be honest, she still couldn’t believe that she was doing this, that she had actually run away from home with her boyfriend.

Well, she told her father where she was going, and her mother wasn’t stupid; she probably knew where they were, but the fact that she hadn’t come after them is what really surprised Sumire.

While Sumire was glad that she didn’t come after them, a part of her wondered if her mother got the message to leave them be and that it wouldn’t be an interrogation session when she got back home about what they did.

Stopping at the thought, Sumire tried to think about what had happened the night prior. She knew that she talked about her past with Kasumi, but beyond that, she didn’t remember much.

Feeling a bit down as she thought about it, she wondered if Ren remembered, and if they were going to talk again.


	52. Chapter 51

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright.   
> I'm back in the swing of things.  
> Since I have a rather open schedule this semester, updates for this story should be the way it was last summer, being a chapter every few days or so.

As she left the station, Sumire looked over her shoulder one last time, sighing as she stepped out into the street.

It was nothing really; just a woman who happened to look like her mother was in the next car over, but Sumire couldn’t deny the fear that she felt, worried that her mother wasn’t as restrained as she thought she was. When she realized that it wasn’t her mother, Sumire sighed in relief internally, but the sudden shock still made her a bit paranoid. She relaxed a bit once she saw the woman get off two stations before her, but she kept looking over her shoulder to make sure.

Now that she was out of the station, she relaxed a bit more, but the tension didn’t leave Sumire’s body until Leblanc came into sight, making her smile and pick her pace up a bit.

“Pardon me,” she said, the bells on the door ringing as Sumire closed it.

“Come now,” Futaba smirked, leaning over the counter as she looked at Sumire. “At least say that you’re home. I’m sure someone would love to hear it.”

“As nice as it would be,” Ren called out from the stairs, Morgana already down and making his way up to the counter by the time Ren had finished the sentence. “It would be all the better if it were our home.”

Lowering her face to hide her blush, Sumire didn’t hear the offended sound Futaba made, to which Sojiro chuckled.

“What do you mean it’s not your home?” Futaba asked, pointing a finger at Ren as he ignored her, walking up to Sumire. “It was your home for a while,” Morgana said, ignoring the approving look from Futaba as Ren shrugged, looking back at her.

“It was home, but I don’t plan on staying up there forever with two people,” he said, reaching for Sumire’s hand while he rested his forehead against hers.

With her thoughts from the station rushing back to her, Sumire’s blush intensified, making Futaba grin, raising a hand to her lips in a faux attempt to hide her grin, while Morgana shook his head.

“Don’t do that on the floor, what if a customer comes?” Sojiro asked, making Ren turn around.

“Maybe people will think that this is a café of love, you might get more customers.”

That made Sojiro laugh. “Sure, sure, but I don’t know if the miss can take that right now,” he chuckled as he shook his head. “Maybe you can fly it by her in a few years.”

Smiling a bit himself, Ren turned to Sumire, her face now red enough to make it difficult to tell where her face ended, and her hair started.

“Want to go up?” he asked, reaching a hand out which Sumire eagerly grabbed, speeding past everyone as she dragged Ren up the stairs.

“Try not to be too loud!” Futaba called out after them, for which Morgana leapt at her face, making her scream as she fell on her back.

“Is she going to be okay?” Sumire asked as Sojiro’s laugh finally faded, along with Morgana screaming ‘For Lady Ann!!’ as the sound of the door opening was heard, along with heavy footsteps coming after that shouted, ‘YOU STUPID CAT!!’

“She’s fine,” Ren said, shrugging his shoulders as he sat on the couch, patting to his side to invite her over. “If she could scream and run after him like that, she’s fine.”

Taking his offer, Sumire sat down, leaning against him.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Ren reached an arm around her, pulling her in as he looked down at her.

“Hey Sumi.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to continue from last night or ….”

There it was.

Tightening up, Sumire kept her gaze down as Ren leaned into her, his cheek resting on top of her head.

“If you don’t want to talk now, I’ll wait. But I’d rather do it while I can still be with you in person rather than on the phone.”

That’s right.

Ren was eventually going to go back home, and who knew when they could meet face to face again.

Reaching over to grab the hand resting on her shoulder, Sumire leaned in a bit closer, before slowly raising her face to look at him.

“I-I guess I said that Kasumi still controls my life,” she started, averting her eyes as Ren looked at her.

“You did,” Ren confirmed, nodding despite Sumire not looking at him. "Is there anything else you remember from last night?"

Thinking about it, Sumire looked toward her lap, her hand tightening into a fist as her grip on Ren's hand tightened. 

"I-I think there was one more thing, but I don't really remember what it was about..."

"You did say something," Ren nodded again, looking back at Sumire who kept averting her eyes. “And it is the one thing from last night that I have to correct.”

Taking his arm off her shoulder, Sumire looked somewhat worried, afraid of what Ren would say, before said arm scooped under her knees, making her yelp as Ren picked her up.

“You said that I’m only with you because I met Kasumi,” he started, adjusting his grip as he stood up, a hand getting a bit too close, but neither of them noticed in the moment.

“It’s true that we met because of her, but we’re not together because of that,” Ren continued, sitting back down with Sumire in his lap, turning her around so that they were face-to-face.

“We’re together because I love you, and I would do anything to make sure that the fighter I saw that day make it out and love herself for who she is.”

There was a pause as they both started to breathe heavily before they quickly looked away from each other to hide their blushes. The blush on Sumire’s face because of Ren’s confession, while Ren’s was from trying not to think too much about where his hand had landed when he picked Sumire up or how he placed her so firmly on his lap.

After maybe a minute or so, Ren was the first one to break the silence, turning to look back at Sumire. She was still flustered, her cheeks still a shade of red, but when she realized he was looking at her, she gave him a quick glance, before averting her eyes by burrowing her face into his chest.


	53. Chapter 52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, a bit shorter this time. I think I make up for it with what I wrote, but eh.

As Sumire's face was buried in his chest, Ren tried to think of what to do from here.

While his confession was unplanned, he wanted to say something like it when Sumire cried herself to sleep. Hearing what Morgana had ‘leaked’ to Futaba also made him somewhat worried, as if he was now on a timer to get something done before she decided to talk. He didn’t know if he would have the self-restraint needed to not have an ‘accident’ near her figures if she spoke to anyone, especially not Ayako.

But worrying about that wouldn’t do anything at the moment; comforting and helping Sumire talk through Kasumi was more important once she could focus and talk about it again.

Rubbing her back, Ren waited for Sumire to show her face again. He waited for about five minutes before he looked down. He briefly wondered if she fell asleep, but her breathing didn’t indicate as such.

“Sumi?”

“Hm?”

“Are you going to look at me?”

She didn’t respond for a few seconds, before leaning her head back, looking up at him.

Ren didn’t say anything, waiting for her to say something, when she reached for her glasses. Waiting to see what she would do, Ren waited as Sumire’s hand stopped on her frames, looking back at him as she thought about if she wanted to do this.

After briefly hesitating, she took them off, noticing the sad look on Ren’s face as she did so. But she kept them in her hands, putting them to the side as she leaded back into his chest, wrapping her arms around him.

With a sad smile, Ren kept his mouth shut, and gently ran his hand through her hair, waiting for something to happen.

“I,” Sumire started, making Ren pause his hands as he looked down, seeing her still nuzzled up against his chest.

“Ren?” she asked, looking up with worry in her eyes.

“Sorry,” he said, giving her a peck on the forehead. “I didn’t mean to stop you. Go on.”

There was a moment of silence, but Sumire eventually burrowed back down, with Ren running his hands back through her hair.

“I said things about how Kasumi still controls my life,” she continued after a few minutes, her voice more muted from talking into his chest.

“And I know it wasn’t your intent, that you wanted me to feel happy as myself,” she said, making Ren pause, thinking about what she could be talking about. “But there are some moments where I curse my glasses.”

Ren froze, seemingly unable to think about why that it would be the case. The thought quickly left as he felt Sumire’s grip tighten, pulling him back in as he continued to stroke her hair.

“Can you tell me why?”

Her grip tightened even more, and Ren could feel her nails start to dig into the fabric, but said nothing, waiting for her to be ready.

“You looked sad when I took them off,” Sumire started, her grip relaxing a bit as she spoke. “You acted like I was reverting just because I took them off.”

Sumire’s grip tightened again, keeping Ren from stopping as he continued to stroke her hair.

“If our visual differences were more than just the color of our hair or a beauty mark under her eye, something like wearing glasses wouldn’t mean a thing. But because I wore glasses before everything happened, you think that they’re a symbol of me of before everything,” she continued, as Ren started to feel her nails dig into his skin.

“You think that if I’m not wearing my glasses, that I’m not me. And you seem to only show your love when I’m wearing glasses.”

Ren said nothing, though he had the strongest urge to protest what she was saying.

“It’s like you love the idea of me in glasses more than you love me,” Sumire continued, as a damp spot started to form on Ren’s shirt.

“It’s like the glasses make me Sumire in your eyes, and if I take them off, I’m no longer the girl you say you love.”

Ren bit his tongue, wanting to say that it was not true, but he wasn’t sure how he would follow that up. He would have some time to think, as Sumire took a shallow breath.

“You said you loved me, but the gymnast me doesn’t wear glasses when practicing or performing.”

There was a pause as Sumire kept breathing quickly, sounds leaving her mouth as she tried to figure out what to say next.

“Is that still me? Didn’t you say that you loved me for fighting as hard as I do?”

There was a pause as Sumire’s breath started to settle, giving Ren time to think about what to say, when Sumire said something that made him break.

“Can I not take my glasses off to nuzzle into your chest without making you worry why?”


	54. Chapter 53

Ren sat there in silence as Sumire continued crying into his chest, trying his damnedest not to let any tears of his own spill.

It stung when she said that he only loved the idea of her in glasses more than her as a person. While he was absolutely sure that he loved her, the fact that he couldn’t deny the feeling of disappointment he felt when he saw her take her glasses off hurt.

Even with Sumire admitting that it was irrational, and that it wasn’t his intent to hurt her, the fact that he might have hurt her when he was trying to help hurt him more than he could describe. Especially when she said that she couldn’t take them off without worrying him, to do something as basic as getting closer for physical comfort, hurt the most.

She just wanted something that he was supposed to give her and felt disappointed because she didn’t appear a certain way for it. That was one thing that Ren couldn’t forgive himself for letting happen.

Wiping his eyes so that she couldn’t see his tears, Ren leaned in and whispered, ‘I’m sorry,’ into Sumire’s ears, stroking her head and back.

As he waited for Sumire to calm down, he looked up as he heard the door open downstairs, with Futaba sighing and the scurrying sound of Morgana running against the floor.

“Hey,” the cat said, his paws clicking against the stairs. “You guys okay?” he asked, popping his head out from the top.

A sad smile greeted him as Ren looked at him, while Sumire shuffled a bit as she turned her head to look at Morgana.

“A rough start, huh?” he asked, walking over to them as he hopped onto the empty spot on the couch, looking at Ren and Sumire as they turned to face him.

“Did you cry?” Morgana asked as he focused his attention on Ren, making Sumire turn to look at him.

He hesitated to answer, but when Sumire reached a hand out and touched the corner of his eyes, he gave a weak smile.

“I suppose I did,” he said, taking the hand reaching for his face into his own. Seeing her worried look, Ren smiled and guided her hand down while he reached for his own glasses.

Taking them off, he put them next to Sumire’s glasses and he leaned into her, their faces close enough to touch.

“Let’s stay like this for a few seconds,” Ren said, putting a hand behind Sumire’s head, closing the distance between them as he closed his eyes, missing her blush as a result. Unsure of what she was supposed to do, Sumire tried to look to her side, but Ren’s nose kept her from turning to face Morgana, who grinned once she turned her gaze to look at him.

Seeing the grin, Sumire wasn’t sure of what to do, but once Morgana made it clear that he wasn’t offering help, even starting to curl up, he gave her a final look before closing his own eyes. Pausing to think, Sumire eventually accepted the contact and closed her eyes, leaning into Ren’s touch.

After a few minutes of quiet, the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs made Ren break away, releasing his grip on Sumire as they both turned to look to see who it was.

“Sorry,” Sojiro said at the top of the stairs, a soft grin as the pair looked at him. “We could hear the crying from the kitchen, so I sent the cat up to see.”

As the two turned to look at Morgana’s sleeping form, Sojiro gave a small smile, turning back down towards the stairs.

“Guess that was the right choice. Had to send him up to keep Futaba from peeping on ya.”

Turning back to the stairs, Ren and Sumire missed asking any questions as Sojiro’s head had already disappeared behind the guardrails, with a ‘get back to work,’ telling them who was waiting for his return.

Taking a moment to silently thank Morgana for everything today, Ren turned to look at Sumire, giving her a quick peck.

“Do you want to stay here or go lay down on the mattress?” he asked as he pulled away.

Sumire contemplated it for a while, looking between the mattress and her glasses, before looking at Ren, who was giving a gentle smile, waiting for her to be ready with her answer.

“Can, can we stay here?” she asked, looking down as she adjusted the position of her legs.

“Sure,” Ren said, stroking Sumire’s head once she settled down, leaning against his chest as she nestled in.

There was a nice period of time where neither of them said anything, as Ren stroked Sumire’s head while she listened to his breathing, a self-sufficient system of calming flowing between the two.

“Sumi,” Ren started, pulling her gaze up to him as he spoke. “I’m sorry that I made it difficult for physical comfort, and that you felt those feelings.”

Releasing his grip on her head, Ren looked down to meet Sumire’s upward gaze, a sad smile on his face.

“And I’m sorry for being a hypocrite.”

Blinking for a few seconds, Sumire looked at him in confusion, wondering what he was talking about.

“Did you know that I didn’t wear glasses before I came to Tokyo.”

Widening her eyes, Sumire looked at Ren as he gave a sheepish smile, looking to his side as they rested right next to Sumire's.

“After I was sentenced and got sent off, I thought that wearing glasses wouldn’t make me appear as threatening to people,” he admitted, shaking his head as he thought about his first few months. “It failed before I even had a chance to try,” he chuckled, pressing his forehead against hers.

“Even after everything was cleared up, I still wear these even though my supposed reason to is gone.” A sad smile as he continued, “Maybe it’s because I feel that there are still people who still fear me.”

“Or maybe it’s that this is the me that you know and fell in love with.”


	55. Chapter 54

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been (checks watch) over a week since I updated this, and it'll be a while before I come back to this again because I have two things I want to work on and finish, at least one, before a certain day this month. Ah well, I just hope you look forward to those two.

Turning her gaze to look at the pair of glasses that lay next to each other, Sumire looked as Ren gave a weak smile, reaching a hand out to cover them.

“You’ve gotten stronger,” he said, turning her attention toward him.

“We used to only talk about things like this when you would have panic attacks about your identity,” Ren continued, lifting both of their glasses up. “But circumstance is making it so that you’re choosing to talk to me about this stuff.”

As he moved his hand back towards them, Sumire heard a slight ‘tink’ and looked down to Ren’s hand. What greeted her was both of their glasses rested in his hand, each pair facing their respective wearers. “And now that you’ve told me that, I’ll give you a choice.”

Turning her attention back to him, she saw him smile as he looked down to his hand.

“I’m not going to ask you to make this decision permanent, or that you have to choose now,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers. “But I think you should choose if you want to wear these or not.”

As Sumire looked at her glasses, her face reflected in the lenses, waiting for their fate to be determined, she looked back up at Ren, his smile still present as he looked at her, waiting for her to decide.

“What about your pair?” Sumire eventually asked, looking across Ren’s hand as they rested further away from her.

“If you want to decide on it, go ahead,” he answered, raising his opposite hand to rest on her cheek, his thumb lightly stoking her. “You felt pressured because I preferred you with your glasses, right?” Raising her eyes to look at him, Sumire saw a weak smile, with Ren’s eyes still focused on his hand. “I can change my image if you’re the one who wants it.”

Looking back down to the glasses, Sumire thought about what Ren was offering to her. Was this really the level of devotion that he was willing to go to, to show how much he felt that he wronged her in her own thoughts.

Reaching a hand out, Sumire paused as her fingertips touched Ren’s, glancing up to see what his reaction would be.

There was no emotion, just him focusing his gaze on her fingers as they rested on his hand, waiting to see if they would advance or retreat.

Looking back down, Sumire lifted her fingers, hovering over the edge of his hand as she kept thinking.

“I can change my mind later, right?” she asked, lowering her fingers to touch his again.

“Yep,” Ren said, pushing a bit more lightly against Sumire’s forehead.

Raising her hand again, Sumire moved her hand over her pair, reaching for Ren’s.

Taking a peek again, Sumire looked to see how Ren was responding. His eyes didn’t move away from his hand, watching as he waited for her hand to move.

Seeing that he was not going to stop her, Sumire closed her hand around his pair and lifted them up.

“Close your eyes,” she said, picking up Ren’s glasses as he did as he was told.

Wanting to make sure that his eyes were closed, Sumire picked up her pair and put both on her thighs. Feeling that there was nothing in his hand, Ren started to lower it, thinking that he wouldn’t have to hold it out, when Sumire put her hand in his. “Hold it up,” she said, making Ren raise his hand back to where it was. Once it was about where it was before, she moved her hand from his to in front of his eyes.

“Whose pair is this?” she asked, putting Ren’s pair back into his hand.

“Mine, the frame’s a bit rounder than yours.”

Blinking for a few moments, Sumire pulled her hand back to see if his eyes were really closed while Ren chuckled a bit, trying his best not to shake his head. “You’re asking a thief to see if he knows the difference of two items in his hands, of course I know how our glasses feel in my hand.”

Snatching the pair away, Sumire pouted and put her hand back over Ren’s eyes as he smirked, leaning into where he thought her hand would be. “Is this better?”

Pausing at the sudden touch of Ren’s face, Sumire looked at the hand covering his eyes, wondering what she was supposed to do.

“I’m really free to choose?”

“Yes.”

Letting his answer bounce around for a few seconds, Sumire looked down at both her pair on her thigh and his pair in her hand, their lenses reflecting back as she kept thinking about what she should do.

Putting her glasses back onto the table, Sumire put Ren’s pair on her face and took her hand off his face.

There was a moment of silence as Sumire waited for Ren to open his eyes, her small amount of confidence in her choice quickly fading as she was worried that he already knew her choice when he asked, “Can I look now?”

Blinking at the question, Sumire wondered if Ren was teasing her, as he followed up with, “You told me to close my eyes, but I haven’t heard you tell me to open my eyes yet.”

“You can look,” she sighed, lowering her head a bit as Ren opened his eyes.

As he looked, he gave Sumire a smile.

“Is this your choice for now?” Ren asked, reaching his arms out for a hug.

“Yes,” she answered, leaning as she rested her head against his shoulder.

“This is me going forward.”


	56. Chapter 55

After she had made her choice, the two of them sat in a comfortable silence before her stomach rumbled. Pouting at the laugh Ren made when he heard the sound, the two of them took it as an excuse to head out and get dinner ready.

Futaba immediately commented about how Ren wasn’t wearing glasses and Sumire was wearing his, wiggling her brows at them as they came down the stairs. But with Sojiro pulling on her ear and Morgana snickering at her, the pair walked out of Leblanc without further hassle, talking about what they should get at the store.

Dinner was a simple affair, some chicken pilaf using the leftover rice from the unserved portions of curry and some sweet bread for dessert, though they took most of it upstairs when Futaba nabbed more than her share of the sweets.

Ignoring the offender’s complaints that it was ‘to secure provisions’ that made their way up the stairs, the two sat on the couch as Ren watched Sumire work her way through the rest of the bread, a smile on his face as he watched her indulge in a rather rare treat.

“Hey,” he asked once Sumire finished her bread. “Do you want to go to the bathhouse?”

“Hm?” she asked, turning to look at Ren, licking her fingers to get the sugar off them.

“I saw a sign on our way back in, and the bathhouse is holding a discount for women today,” he said, taking the bread wrappers and curling them up into a ball. “I don’t know how often you take baths at home, but you haven’t since I’ve come over, have you?”

“Oh,” Sumire said, looking away with a blush, thinking about what she was told. “I thought that was going a different direction.”

“Hm?” Ren asked, tossing the wrappers and turning with a smirk on his face as he looked to her. “Did you have something in mind?”

Sumire said nothing, turning a bit further away as the wrappers hit the floor, missing the trash can.

“Well, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to,” he said, getting up to pick up the wrappers which missed the bin, spotting a crease that he was telling himself made him miss his shot. “But I thought I’d let you know.”

Nodding in response, Sumire looked around as she thought about if she should go or not.

After a few seconds, she eventually got up, going into her back as she looked for some things.

“I’ll go,” she said, getting up from her bag and moving over to her gym bag. “Are you going?”

“I’ll go later,” he said, getting up and leaning over her. “Or did you want something else when you said that?”

“Oh! Oh!” Futaba’s voice came from below, making the pair freeze. “You can always use ours!”

The attic got quiet as the two looked at each other, pausing at the actual prospect of them bathing together.

“It’ll happen eventually! Just make it sooner rather than …”

Something cut her off, but it clearly wasn’t forceful, which made Ren and Sumire wonder what it was.

“Mona,” Futaba’s voice said in a solid tone, making Ren smile as he thought about what the cat could be doing. “Mona, no.”

Hearing the cat laugh, Ren and Sumire heard someone run downstairs, followed by the sound of someone sliding along the floor and something smacking the floor, which was followed up by something hitting said someone.

“I’ll head out then,” Sumire said, getting up as she grabbed her gym bag.

With a shallow sigh, Sumire walked out of the bathhouse, smiling as she saw Ren waiting for her as he sat at the counter in Leblanc.

She had managed to catch the last hour of the women’s shift before it would the men’s turn, and while it was probably not as long as she would normally soak if she hadn’t taken a bath for a while, she couldn’t deny that it was a relaxing hour.

Feeling her wet hair press against the back of her shirt, Sumire made her way over to Leblanc. She normally would’ve dried it out before she would’ve left, but Ren said that he wanted to brush her hair as she was walking out of the door.

Sumire didn’t know why he wanted to brush her hair, but she may as well let it happen. It had been a while since someone else brushed her hair, and it might turn into a little routine that they could look forward to.

As she opened the door, Ren turned to look at her, an easy smile on his face as he got up, with Morgana poking his head out behind him, his forelimbs propped up on the counter.

“Ready to go up?” he asked, reaching a hand out as he stood up.

“Yes,” she answered, taking his hand as Morgana scampered past them, already up the stairs by the time they reached them.

Once they got up, Sumire reached into her bag and got out her brush. Looking to see where Ren was sitting, she saw him sitting on the bed, patting between his legs as he invited her to come.

Joining him on the bed, Sumire passed him the brush as she nestled in, feeling Morgana jump into her lap and Ren run his hand through her hair as he prepared to start.

Once he started, the room was comfortably quiet, with the sound of the brush making its way through Sumire’s hair and Morgana’s soft breathing being the only real sounds.


End file.
